Prison service operating Bizarre Travel Arrangements for Suspects
Victims of crime in Zimbabwe’s capital city Harare are now allowed to ferry the alleged perpetrators of those crimes from prisons to court after the state prisons service ran out of fuel, according to local reports on Thursday, DPA news service said.
File Photo from last years starving prisoners articles
Conditions have improved significantly in Zimbabwe’s 42 jails since last year when an estimated 1000 inmates had died in the first six months of the year of disease and neglect. But the Department of Prison Services still cannot provide transport to take prisoners awaiting trial to court.
“All our vehicles are off the road,” Zimbabwe Prison Service spokesman Priscilla Mtembo was quoted as saying by the state-controlled daily Herald on Thursdays. “We are actually failing to service courts in Harare, but we are attending to the problem.”
The Herald spoke to plaintiffs who said they had been given permission by prison authorities in Harare to transport the prisoners to court themselves.
“I talked to the officers and they told me it was possible for me to ferry the accused persons, who will be escorted by prisons officers,” said one complainant weary of having his case repeatedly postponed because the accused were always absent.
“After court proceedings, I will also ferry the officers and the accused persons back to remand prison,” said the complainant, who asked not to be named.
Prisons in 2008 and 2009 ran short of food, water, uniforms, medical supplies and cleaning materials for the country’s 15 000 prisoners, leaving them to go hungry in filthy cells, after the economy crashed spectacularly and the national currency dived to 4 trillion Zimbabwean dollars for 1 US dollar.
The situation improved when international aid agencies provided cash and supplies.
Posted by Raymond Mhaka
on April 29, 2010. Filed under Local News.
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