At least 6 000 inmates to taste early freedom in amnesty

Harare(New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe government intends to pardon at least 6 000 prisoners to decongest the country’s correctional facilities, a Cabinet Minister said on Tuesday.

The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services currently operates 46 correctional facilities in the country whose carrying capacity stands at 17 000.

The last amnesty was done in 2018 when President Emmerson Mnangagwa pardoned at least 3 000 prisoners under a Presidential amnesty in an effort to reduce the prison population.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Cabinet had considered and approved a proposal for a general amnesty.

“Cabinet noted that the country’s prison population (is) currently standing at 22 000 against an official holding capacity of 17 000. The general amnesty which will be for certain specified categories of prisoners will certainly decongest the country’s prisons and alleviate challenges being experienced by the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services,” she said.

Adding on, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the vetting process for qualifying inmates had already started.

“What we did is to list the categories of prisoners that we are proposing to give an amnesty (to) and we listed nine categories so going forward we will then now work on the prisoners that we have to see how many qualify among the nine categories,” he said.

“But our target is we want to reduce our prison population so that it is within our prison carrying capacity, so we are very hopeful that we can be able to reduce it from 22 000 to about 17 000 or 16 000 preferably.”

New Ziana