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Raymond Jaravaza, [email protected]

ZIMBABWE and Namibia are committed to working together on issues aimed at elevating the standards of services in their correctional facilities, including creating more sustainable and humane prison environment which ultimately contributes to the rehabilitation of inmates.

This emerged yesterday during a tour of Khami Maximum Prison on the outskirts of Bulawayo by Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) Commissioner-General Moses Chihobvu and his Namibian counterpart, Comm-Gen Raphael Tuhafeni Hamunyela who is on a familiarisation tour of the country’s correctional facilities.

The Namibia Correctional Services boss who is leading a delegation comprising his deputy, Marinna Martin and other senior prison officials, was taken on a tour of Khami Maximum Prison’s dairy farm, goat and sheep pens and a piggery project.

Speaking after the tour, Comm-Gen Hamunyela said enhanced food security, capacitating prisons to be self-sufficient and ensuring that the rights of those serving time are respected, are key values that Zimbabwe and Namibia will continue to explore as the two countries work on improving standards of services at correctional facilities.

“We have several areas of cooperation that we need to keep working on and improving, but for now I will dwell on the most important ones. The first one is the area of security where we must make sure that our prisoners are kept in humane and dignified conditions hence we need to train our officers to maintain security but at the same time treat inmates with respect and dignity,” he said.

Namibians Prisons tour

“Food production is also an important area because as correctional and prison services, we need to make sure that no prisoner dies of hunger both in Zimbabwe and Namibia. As we sign our action plans tomorrow, we must emphasise the need for enhanced food security in all our prisons.”

Comm-Gen Hamunyela said he was impressed by the income-generating projects that they toured at Khami. He said the projects are testimony of the prison’s drive for self-sufficiency.

“I was impressed to see that the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services has a herd of cattle in their prisons. Both countries must, however, make sure that the quality of the cattle is good,” he said.

Comm-Gen Hamunyela also presided over the official handover of a borehole drilled by ZPCS) in partnership with a Marondera-based church — Great Commission International Ministries – at Mlondolozi Prison.

Mlondolozi Prison, which houses mental health patients and female inmates, has been battling water shortages for years. The new borehole is expected to improve the hygienic conditions of inmates at the facility as well as boost productivity of the nutrition gardens.

Namibians Prisons tour

Comm-Gen Hamunyela said both countries must strive to come up with rehabilitation and reintegration strategies that ensure that prisoners who have served their sentences are welcomed back into society.

“Part of my delegation is the Deputy Commissioner General (Marinna Martin) who is also the head of our rehabilitation and reintegration division. I can safely say that Namibia is one of the top countries in Africa that offer a structured rehabilitation and reintegration programme that includes counselling services to our prisoners,” he said
“It’s an area that we need to work on together and share knowledge from the experiences of both countries to see how best we can implement rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.”

Comm-Gen Chihobvu said they stand to benefit from sharing ideas on how prisons in the two countries are run.
“If we don’t interact with prison officials from other countries then it simply means that we are living in isolation.

The world is changing and there are now new technologies that make the lives of people around the globe better, so we must learn from countries such as Namibia how they run their correctional services,” he said.

“As a country, Zimbabwe shares not only borders with other Southern African countries but shares identical values in areas such as how prisons are run. So, we need to interact with the Namibians and other countries so that we can learn from them.”

Deputy Commissioner–General Martin also took time to talk to prisoners. “Some of you might say that your parents, siblings, or the community wronged you so that is why you are here, but it’s important to self-introspect and realise that no one has control over how others treat them. Being in prison is not the end of your life, instead, write your own beautiful story by learning from your mistakes and being a better person,” he said.