Red Cross says it is feeding prisoners in Zimbabwe

By Lance Guma
08 June 2009

The International Committee of the Red Cross has revealed that it is distributing food, blankets, soap and other supplies to about 6 300 prisoners in the country. The organization expects to be feeding close to 10 000 inmates by the end of the year. But as a report from the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender notes, there are 55 prisons with a capacity to hold 17 000 and yet there are close to 35 000 inmates.

A collapse to the country’s economy, brought about by bad government policies, led to a dramatic decline in standards inside the prisons. The destruction of the agricultural sector also made sure there was no food available.

A documentary entitled ‘Hell Hole’, produced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s Special Assignment team, highlighted the appalling conditions in the jails. Emaciated prisoners were seen living in over-crowded cells, and footage showed the makeshift mortuaries that were trying to cater to the huge number of prisoners dying. Activists say the documentary merely exposed to a wider international audience what was already known by most Zimbabweans.

With a shaky coalition government failing to handle the crisis, the Red Cross has now come in to help. They have already set up therapeutic feeding programmes to deal with those suffering from severe malnutrition. To try and curb the spread of cholera and other diseases, which are killing hundreds of inmates per month, the group is also planning to renovate kitchens and water systems inside the cells. The organization says it will prioritize helping the most vulnerable detainees.

Deputy Agriculture Minister designate Roy Bennett, who spent some time in prison on trumped up banditry and terrorism charges, gave a revealing insight into conditions. ‘There are people there who look worse than the photographs of prisoners in (Nazi concentration camps) Dachau and Auschwitz,’ he said. Bennett said his experience in prison was ‘harrowing’ and he wouldn’t even wish for his worst enemy to go through what he went through.

Concern has also been raised that thousands of detainees are possibly innocent and have yet to be taken to court to prove their guilt or otherwise. Bennett for example brought to attention the plight of Elvis Nodangala, a South African who was arrested in October 2008 and spent 6 months in a Mutare jail without appearing in court or having any legal representation. Many inmates spend years inside jail after their cases get lost in the shambolic judicial system.