Posted by Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa has dismissed an SABC TV3 Special Assignment documentary which aired horrifying footage exposing how prisons in the country have become death camps for thousands of inmates who are deprived of food and medical care.
The documentary, shown on Tuesday’s night on South Africa’s state broadcaster SABC3, documented the “living hell” for prisoners at Beitbridge, Khami and Chikurubi Maximum prisons.
Chinamasa told local media that the documentary, which showed horrifying pictures of gravely ill inmates, was ‘false’ and accused the SABC team of fabricating the story.
“What was shown by the SABC3 is not true,” said Chinamasa. “The SABC is lying. We do not allow cameras into our prisons. We have made investigations and found out that the footage is not from Zimbabwean but other countries,” he said.
“The pictures shown are not from Zimbabwe prisons but elsewhere in Africa and these are being attributed to us. We know our prisons are facing challenges but that documentary was false. Also it is unethical for the SABC to show such pictures of foreign prisoners and attribute them to Zimbabwe. I want to re-state that no-one is allowed inside our prisons with cameras,” he said.
But the SABC team said the film, made by SABC’s Special Assignment programme, was shot over three months with cameras smuggled into the prisons.
The film showed how prison staff have converted cells and storage rooms to “hospital wards” for the dying and makeshift mortuaries, where bodies “rot on the floors with maggots moving all around”. In the footage inmates could be heard speaking in Shona and Ndebele-Zimbabwe ‘s national languages.
However Senator Roy Bennett, the deputy agriculture minister-designate, who spent one month in a Mutare jail confirmed the authenticity of the footage.
“Those pictures are real, if not rather conservative pictures. The conditions in the prison I was in in Mutare were far worse images than that,” he said.
“There are images of people in what used to be called penal blocks, where if you misbehave within the prison system you are put into that block as an individual. And there are five people in those.
“At any one stage there is at least one person there who is unable to move around. He is on a drip during the day, the drip is taken off during the night because they are locked up. And basically they are dying.”
Despite the denials from Chinamasa, Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Jessie Majome, acknowledged that there was a serious humanitarian crisis in all Zimbabwe’s prisons and appealed for aid.
Late last year seven inmates at Mutimurefu prison in Masvingo died of hunger related diseases,after the government reversed a food aid ban.
Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) public relations manager, Gransinia Masango confirmed the deaths then but denied that they died because of hunger
“It is true that some prisoners in Masvingo died, but not of hunger. I was informed that they were already ill,” said Masango.
Additional Reporting by Radio Vop
This is what we have been saying all along. There are some people in leadership who are not interested in solving problems.Instead of Chinamasa admitting that there is a problem in our prison system he is busy trying to hide.He should investigate what is going on instead of blaming the SABC 3 investigative team. VaChinamasa taneta nemi ! Ko, kungonyarara.Muchatongwa zvakaoomarara.Dai manga muchitotaura nezvaMwale mhondi iya.
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Ivo veSauthi vanoda kuti majeri aite kunge mahotera sei? Ndosaka crime isingaperi kunyika kwavo. Muno ukaona watongerwa jeri woziva kuti watokwata saka hapana anoda kuripika jeri.Avo vakapinda vasina mhosva sori havo. Iyi picture ndakamboiona pafootage yeku Guinea, Conakry to be specific. I am working on getting that footage to ZBC now.
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Abel is a ZANU PFU mugger. He mugs anybogy who speaks against his paymasters. All the bodies which were picked up rotting in the bush and on farms are Abel’s handiwork. Now they are doing it by starvation in prisons. Pure muggings.
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ABEL
Please explain how these foreigners were speaking Shona.!! . Idiot….
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Vakomana inga zvakaoma. Ko vana Abero moyo yakaipa kudaro makaitora kupi? If the jail inmates deserve to be in jail, Chinamasa and company deserve a worse jail than them. How can you explain this with the fact that their don’t allow cameras inside prisons? Why do they not allow them anywhere? whats there to hide? Gentlemen first things first, the idea of jail term is rehabilitation. What do you learn from this one. Hunger, sickness, tourture and death. after the jail term has elapsed will the inmate be ready to intergrate with society? I am greatly apalled!!!!!!!!!!!
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Chinamasa must answer for this horrible crime when the time of reckoning comes. This arrogant display of impunity must never be forgiven. He MUST face justice.
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@Dave Hauzive anonzi mavoice effects here. Unoita kunge munhu westoneage seiko iwe Dave.
@Fari Ko Chinamasa haudi kuti akwate here kana aonekwa ari deserving kupinda mujeri nhai.
@Sama Yes I am Zanu pf. Is that not the freedom of association you chaps are fighting for, bloody hypocrite.
If we exchange prisons SouthAfrica nesu for one year, crime will reduce drastically in SA and increase here. I hear the inmates in SA even get three meals a day and get to watch TV. Uyu bhururu waZuma akatoburitswa musi uno achinzi haachanzwa mushe, kana ndimiwo. Gororo igororo. Ngarifiremo mutirongo.
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abel you are disgusting, one day you and chinamasa and company shall answer to all these abuses that are occuring to humanity. Those are Zimbabwean prisons no sound effects or what, you zanu idiots are only good at telling lies and shifting blame. You are sickening, Bennet was in and he is confirming what he saw and the number of people that died when he was in. Shame on you zanu.
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Abhero is a CIO operative assigned to dampen your spirits by posting his warped Zanu pf hogwash.Chinokura chinokotama, aive madziva ave mazambuko, chisingaperi chinoshura…..zvichapera chete vanhu veZanu. anaMuzenda yangova history, anaMsika angova makuva ari kufamba ega, iye Mugabe neprostate cancer anosvikepi, maiMujuru kufa neObesity chaiyo. Mati madini vanhu vezanu.Ndosaka ndakakuudza Abhero kuti wakam.a m.a mwoyo ukasiya m.atuzvi mukati uchiti ndomwoyo. Haufunge…..sorry maningi.
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This is the problem of unelected Ministers.They will always say what the person who appointed them wants to hear.The problem with the Chinamasas is that they think they are more intelligent than all other Zimbabweans.Now why not make a tour of the prisons before denying the story.Now how can people who want to help do so when you deny the truth of the story.Hey,Chinamasa aren’t you ashamed of lying to the whole world,shame on you.
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chinamasa, if you say these are not Zimbabwean prisons then allow the media in to film so you can prove your point you lying piece of sh.i.t. chinamasa, Abel the fool, nicol the prostitute are all a waste of human flesh. It is time to start stocking up with chapagne as very soon the ugly baboon mugaybe is going to die. celebration time is just around the corner.
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Chinohururruka chinomhara. Chinamsa achamhara zvake. I hope he will have a soft landing. Iye akazodiniko na Chidyausiku. Chinamasa had gone to court achiti Chief Justice Chidyausiku arikurara nemukadzi wake…. Saka kureva kuti even mukadzi waChinamasa noonawo kusakwana kuri mumurume wake. Mavoters akamuramba, mukadzi akamuramba saka who is Chinamasa… achamhara zvake
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Chinamsa was too embarassed to accept that this is in Zimbabwe… so why are they doing what they can not own upto?
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Abel
kana uoenyu hwenhuwo zvake ari kurarama muZimbabwe hwakaoma sedombo, ko vari mumajeri vanozoita upenyu hwakaita sei? Zvinoda munhu anepfungwa dzkavhurika kuti aone kuti zviri kuitika mumajeri ndezvechokwadi. Usatsigira Chinamasa usingashandise dzako pfungwa. Iva munhu.
Nyaya yekuti kana munhu apara mhosva ngaomeserwe mujeri ipfungwa dzefuza. mupari wemhosva haarasikirwe nekodzero dzake nekuti akapara mhosva. Kodzero dzemunhu dzinoramba dziripo svisinei nekuti ari mujeri.
Kana nyika yati inoisa munhu mujeri inofanira kuzvipira kuti ichengete munhu iyeyo zvakanaka. Kana zvekushandisa vanhu muminda zvinoitwa muZimbabwe zviri kunze kwewirirano yekodzero dzevasungwa pasi rese.
Muka sevamwe urarame upenyu hwanhasi. tave mu21st century kwete mu11 AD.
Pasi riri kukunzwa nezvaunotaura nekunyora and richakutonga nazvo.
kana une vana kana hama zvadzo dzinonyara nemashoko aunonyora. Ndinodaira kuti unoshandisa zita remadunhurirwa chete.
MUKA SAVAMWE.
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the fact that these pictures are not from zimbabwean jails is not the issue .the isue chinamasa should be raising is “these are not zimbabwean jails majeri ezimbabwe awa” then end of story.he didnot expect special assignment producers to ask for his permission.they dont because they operate like that.
chinamasa is a real idiot.rsa has had to suffer the same embarrassment in one of their worst prisons.they were stung by special assignment last year now its your turn.
my verdict is vasungwa vese ngavaregedzwe unconditionally.chinamasa ngaasiyiswe basa or at worst ndaanogara ikoko kumajeri.
but then if one reads report ye2008 yezacro(organisation that sounds prisoner’s rights) one would be so disappointed.ana muyambo made a shoddy job and they know so.all they seem to have found fault with are tumasatelite prisons tomumapurazi yet where people are dying they turned a blind eye.i was looking at working with zacro as a possible donor but eish performance zero.
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prison is nt a hotel,hakudzokerwi uku.they r there bcoz they deserve to b there.luk in sa prison is lk a hotel and criminals committ crimes so they cn go back again.they took their rites away wen they decided to wrong law abiding citizens.many wil b betea spent on mo pressing issues that r confronting zim.lets nt love our criminals lk sa.this is zim under sanctions.
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Nicol,nicol mwana weh.ure!! Ano-deserver kuva mutorongo diwe joki remakoko!! Ka-group kako iwe nana Abhero ndekevana vakabve kusinatsika!! Kana kuthi murivana vemaJOKI !!!
This is a very serious matter that we(zimbabweans) should be demanding real answers not this rubbish coming from these imbeciles,idiots,maggots – namely Chinamasa netwana twema****!!
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chinamasa was not elected just appointed idiot, he can say any nonsense now what a shame that ugly man, he should only concetrate on ARV’s with Charamba and leave politics those idiots are dying. What has happaned to Chihuri now that we have an MDC Minister of Home Affairs?
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Abel is rattling on about the ‘effecttiveness’ of ZANu’s penal system, ‘hanzi criem will reduce’ if Saffas were sent to our jails. You think there is little crime in Zimbabwe? Is there any greater crime than that of ZANU against all Zimbabweans? ZANU has repeatednly raped, tortured and murdered Zimbabweans over the last 30yrs and your ‘effective penal system’ has not hindered their murderous ways.
You will be like those old communists in Russia who’ll prattle on about the old days and eventually be ignored by right thinking folk. You are soon to be irelevant tsano.
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I work in a High Security Prison in UK and envy the way they look after their prisoners who will always be the subjects of the Queen a t whaever cost. Mistreating prisoners is a crime whether they are murders or prisoners of war. Prisoners are the responsibility of every government and should be treated with respect and dignity. Education whilst in prison is important. It provides a rehabilitation window that gives the opportunity to reform and become a better person on discharge.It is not humane to dehumanise people because they have commited a crime. They must serve time in appropriate establishments where they are not a danger to society only by theie absence in the communities they live not by torture they receive from prisons. In Rhodesia, Mugabe and his fellow thugs would not have seen the day of light had the treatement been so evil. They acquired their education in prison, the served their sentences well looked after. Zanu is a scum it’s good they are on their way out!!!!
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