Online Reporter
The Herald, 5 May 1984
THREE major themes of Zimbabwe’s development process emerged at yesterday’s session of the provincial governors’ seminar in Harare.
The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Eddison Zvobgo, announced that prisoners would be made available to work on provincial development schemes, the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Simbi Mubako, announced that Government was considering establishing more border posts to control movement in and out of the country and the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Dr Simba Makoni, said his ministry regarded unemployment among thousands of young Zimbabweans as its major problem.
Cde Zvobgo told the second seminar of provincial governors, heads or ministries and Ministry of Local Government and Town Planning provincial administrators that if any governor, with other local authorities, came up with projects which could be carried out by prisoners, he should forward these to Cde Zvobgo’s ministry.
Prisoners should work very hard and a prison term had to be an experience which no Zimbabwean would want to repeat, Cde Zvobgo said. The whole exercise had to be systematically organised. One of the most important issues was to ensure that prisoners did not escape while working on these development projects.
“We must combine our offices to have prisoners routinely on public works,” Cde Zvobgo said. He said his ministry had initiated a brick- moulding programme by all prisoners which had already started at Chikurubi and Khami prisons. The programme would be expanded to cover other prisons.
The bricks would also be made available for construction projects recommended by the governors but they would be sold at the “cheapest price in the country”.
Cde Zvobgo said they would be sold because his ministry would have put the initial capital for the purchase of cement and other equipment necessary for the moulding, and needed to recover some of this money.
Lessons for today
- Although the language used in 1984 sounds harsh (“prisoners should work very hard”), the underlying idea was not punishment alone, but reforming offenders through work. However, ZPCs projects are no longer symbolic projects they are productive agricultural and production enterprises.
- Even then, the justice system recognised that prison should change behaviour, not just confine people. What is now officially called rehabilitation was already being practised, just under a different name.
- Prison labour was tied to nation-building. The government planned to use prisoners in brick moulding and rural development projects, not private exploitation. Offenders were expected to contribute positively to society as part of paying their debt.
- Dr Zvobgo stated that prison must be “an experience no Zimbabwean would want to repeat.” Hard work was intended as a deterrent, teaching discipline and responsibility. Today’s rehabilitation programmes still aim for the same outcome, reducing reoffending, though with more emphasis on skills and counselling.
