3 years no meat for prisoners

By Nyemudzai Kakore

PRISONERS who rioted at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in an attempted jailbreak in March this year had gone for more than three years without eating meat, a senior prison official revealed yesterday.

Government dietary requirements show that inmates should be fed meals that include meat at least three times per week.

Briefing the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security after touring the prison complex yesterday, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Mashonaland officer-in-charge, Assistant Commissioner George Denya and Chief Superintend Gilbert Marange, said prior to the March riots, prison guards had foiled another riot in February.

Said Chief Supt Marange: “For the past three years, the prisoners did not manage to eat any meat. What is required is to provide meat at least three times a week.

“The first meat that the prisoners ate was last Friday (June 20) when the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority provided us with 250kg of meat.”

Asst Comm Denya chronicled to the legislators what happened on the March 13 attempted jailbreak.

“On 13 February 2015 prisoners protested over food shortages. I came during the night and addressed them. Indications were there was concern that if the situation did not improve, something worse was going to happen,” he said.

“I would not say l managed to recognise the ring leader, it was a collective effort and from the look of things, the motive was that they now wanted to escape.’’

His testimony contradicts what ZPCS Deputy Commissioner General Agrey Machingauta told the same committee last month in Parliament.

Dep Comm-Gen Machingauta alleged that the protests were engineered by opposition forces in the country to embarrass President Mugabe who was away in Japan on official business.

Asst Comm Denya denied that a political force was behind the rioting saying, “I am not aware of that.”

On March 13 at around lunchtime, five inmates were shot dead after ignoring warning shots by security details following an attempted jailbreak at the country’s high security prison.

The prisoners are serving a sentence of eight years to 238 years.

Asst Comm Denya said the commotion could have been prevented if there was adequate security at the prison.

“We do not have enough prison officers. The required ratio is one officer per five inmates. We are asking for more than 160 new prison officers,” he said.

He said for the whole week prior to the rioting, they were giving the inmates sadza and soup because they had no relish. He said when rioting broke out, he was at the Grain Marketing Board sourcing food.

“I arrived late because there was congestion on my way and upon arrival I led a team of prison officers into the prison unaware the prisoners were laying an ambush with bricks, iron bars from water pipes which they had broken and wooden chairs,’’ he said.

Chief Supt Marange, who then was the officer-in-charge, refuted reports that there was prior intelligence before the riot.

He said they were forced to use live ammunition after they failed to contain the situation with prisoners having shouted that they were using blank rounds.

“We were not aware of the intended commotion prior to it (rioting), but intelligence officers had earlier visited the prison in their own investigations and we were not briefed about their findings, he said.

“I did not perform my daily inspection of the prisoners because there was a delegation from the Red Cross who I was attending to. When my lieutenants came to tell me about the riot and that prisoners wanted me in their cells, I refused to go there for security reasons,” he said.

Chairman of the portfolio committee, Clifford Sibanda, in an interview said: “There is a disparity on the testimonies from the prison officers, so the committee will have to sit and consider the submissions by both the deputy commissioner and his juniors.

“We cannot judge that he lied until the committee makes a determination after verifying the report. At the moment it is still at the committee stage,” he said.

The parliamentarians also visited the nine prisoners alleged to have orchestrated the riots in their solitary cells and shared jokes with the likes of End Time Message leader Robert Martin Gumbura who is already serving a 40-year jail term for rape, among other offences. The Herald