20 questions for Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi
The Interview that Never Was
Since our Prisons Commissioner will not make a statement, comment or answer any questions from the public or the press, here are just a few of the questions to which the Zimbabwean public would love to hear the answers:
20 questions for Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi
1) When did you first become aware that the situation in your prisons had become so bad, and what did you do about it?
2) Why did you not ask for assistance from Treasury, or contact the humanitarian aid organisations before now?
3) What happened to the educational, vocational and rehabilitation programs that were in place when you took office?
4) What has happened to the prison farms under your tenure, and why are they no longer supplying food to prisoners?
5) Have you considered resigning over this issue?
6) Do you think that ZPS officers responsible for the deaths of prison inmates should be punished?
7) To whom did you submit your annual reports?
8 ) Does your administration keep proper records of the cause of death and the burial place of each inmate?
9) Are you aware that your staff may be stealing food and other supplies from the quartermaster’s stores, for their own use or to sell on the informal market?
10) When was the last time you made a personal inspection of any of your prisons?
11) Have you ever deployed your senior prison officers to perform duties outside of the prisons, for example during Operation
Makavhoterapapi?
12) Do you know that disrupting court hearings, and disobeying High Court orders, is a punishable offense called ’Contempt of Court’?
13) At what point did the medical facilities at the prisons, collapse?
14) How many prison doctors and nurses are there on the ZPS payroll today?
15) Are you aware of the provisions of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Offenders?
16) Are you aware that Zimbabwe is signatory to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)?
17) What measures did you take when there was an outbreak of cholera in the jails in December 2008?
18) For what services did you receive your medal (Grand Officer of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit) from President Mugabe on Armed Forces Day in August 2008?
19) Is it true that the commercial farms that you own make use of free prison labour?
20) Is it true that you supplied food and accommodation to the ‘Green Bombers’ i.e. ZanuPF youth militia in the Uzumba area, while they were engaged in torture, rape and murder of defenceless villagers before and after the 2008 elections?
