Community services structure stretched

Daniel Nemukuyu Investigations and Special Reports Editor
THE community service department is failing to adequately monitor and follow up on thousands of offenders who are sentenced to unpaid work at Government institutions annually.

Only 72 are deployed countrywide to monitor offenders and ensure compliance with community service orders.

In 2018, the 72 officers had a torrid time monitoring and following up on 11 835 offenders who had their prison terms set aside for community service.

The number of community service offenders last year rose to 14 056.

Heads of Government institutions where offenders are placed do the day-to-day supervision of offenders, but community service officers are obliged to make at least three visits.

That serves to provide checks and balances on the institutional supervisors.

However, the department that has less than five vehicles and 72 officers, is failing to conduct the visits, in violation of the community service orders.

In some cases, the officers only manage to visit placement institutions once, while at times they do not even visit the institutions.

Overwhelmed by the number of convicts, the department that falls under the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, only managed to follow up on 40 percent of the offenders while there were no checks and balances in respect of the other 60 percent.

Such a loophole has resulted in the department over-relying on institutional heads, some of whom are reportedly being corrupted to compile false reports in favour community service defaulters.

Responding to questions raised by The Herald, community service department national director, Mrs Locardia Majonga said her department had no adequate staff and financial resources to deploy officers at all the country’s 52 court stations.

“The ideal situation is that community service officers should be monitoring placement institutions three times before a sentenced convict completes serving,” she said.

Mrs Majonga said her department was mostly relying on institutional heads, some of whom have, on several occasions, proved to be unreliable.

Mrs Majonga said 18 court stations are operating without community service officers.

“The department has 72 officers in post against an approved establishment of 93, meaning there are 21 vacancies.

“The 72 are deployed at 34 of the 52 magisterial stations. There are 18 magisterial stations that do not have community service officers,” she said.

Some heads of institutions are reportedly being paid bribes by offenders and write positive reports to the community service officers when the offenders would not have worked.

Harare has 17 community service officers, while Masvingo and Midlands have 11 and nine officers, respectively.

Manicaland and Mashonaland East have eight officers each, while Bulawayo has six.

Mashonaland West and Matabeleland South have four officers each while Mashonaland Central has three officers.

Matabeleland North has two officers.

The Department of Community Service, on several cases, has clashed with institutional heads whose reports were not reflecting the correct information.

In a recent interesting case, Mrs Majonga clashed with some police bosses in Harare over two contradicting reports from the police on whether or not a Harare convict had performed community.

Visits by the community service department established that the convict had never set foot on the workstation.

A police inspector confirmed the department’s position, but a more senior officer later issued a contradicting report indicating that the convict had actually performed unpaid work.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has since launched investigations into the case to establish the truth.

This followed a report by the complainant in the criminal case in question.