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President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pardoned 3 000 prisoners under a clemency order issued on Wednesday.
There has been much joy as many men and women, who never thought they would be out at this stage of serving their jail terms, had the gates to freedom being opened for them. About 1 530 had been freed by Monday. Connemara Open Prison near Gweru was emptied under the presidential pardon while all prisons were emptied of young offenders aged 18 years and below. Inmates who are 60 years and older were freed as well as those who were serving sentences that were 36 months and less. Those who had served 10 years and above and were on death row also had their sentences reduced to life in prison.
Some of them are so grateful to the President’s gesture that they have pledged to vote for him and Zanu-PF in elections expected by July this year.
“I was sentenced to 20 years for aggravated indecent assault last year,” said Phephelaphi Gumbo, who was serving a 20 year jail sentence at Mlondolozi Prison near Bulawayo.
“I came here in August and had completed six months of my sentence. I was sentenced for a crime I did not commit but I would like to thank President Mnangagwa for the kind gesture. I would have rotted in prison if it were not for him, I wish the Lord to add more years to his life, he is very kind and as I go out, I will definitely vote for him.”
However, we have others who, having been removed from prison, might be walking into yet another prison of sorts where friends and relatives will shun them for fear that they might commit crime once again.
Beroti Maxwell Sibanda, jailed 1994 for murdering his father, is one of them.
“The President’s decision to pardon us has come as a relief to me,” he said.
“First and foremost I want to thank prison officials who kept me for 24 years since 1994. I was condemned to face a death penalty but after seven years my sentence was commuted to life and the President saw it fit that I be released to face the world.
“I was facing a murder charge after I mistakenly killed my father with a knife while trying to defend my mother who had been a victim of violent behaviour since we were young. We were arrested and sentenced to death. My mother was released in 2005 under Presidential amnesty. I do not know where to start. I do not even know if I still have a wife and relatives. They stopped visiting me a long time ago including my mother.”
We hope that jail life reformed Gumbo and Sibanda and their colleagues; we hope it did not harden them. They and their colleagues must demonstrate that they have departed from their criminal ways and are now prepared to start new lives.
We know this is possible because the local penal system has evolved over the years from being punitive and retributive to being rehabilitative and corrective. Gone are the days when the system condemned inmates as incorrigible persons beyond redemption. In the past inmates went inside to receive their punishment. It was double punishment indeed; unending hours of hard labour and physical abuse at the hands of warders.
Now the country has a more humane system. The responsible arm of Government has shown its transformation right from its name. It is now called the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services. This name rightly recognises that offenders deserve to be punished for committing crime, that they must be sent to prison. However, the name also recognises that sending a criminal to prison as punishment for their crimes without working to correct their ways is inhuman. It doesn’t help in engendering a society where crime is reduced to the minimum.
So the evolution is captured, first and foremost, in the name ZPCS itself.
Now inmates are trained in various fields while they are receiving their just punishment. From time to time, they have a chance to have visitations from their friends and relatives.
In addition, the country now has an open prison, Connemara which is effectively a home away from home. Its inmates are freer and enjoy a few other reasonable freedoms than their colleagues in conventional jails. This means that they are not too far removed from the normal lives a person outside jail leads. The ZPCS is thus doing a lot to redeem the humanity in those who commit crime, while, of course, making them realise that criminality is punishable. Now we have some of the country’s better musicians, farmers and other professionals coming from its prisons. It will be most unfortunate if we have those who harden their ways while in jail.
Because local jails serve to correct someone’s mistakes so that they become new persons, we believe that the 3 000 who are being freed will integrate well back into society not to return to be guests of the state yet again. We encourage them to fully utilise the skills that they earned during their times in prison and contribute to national development and social cohesion.
But the integration cannot be successful if society itself develops a negative attitude towards the former prisoners. Society must give them the second chance they desperately need. Sibanda’s family and those who might still feel wronged by some who are emerging from jail under the latest clemency order are encouraged to welcome them back. We acknowledge that we might not agree with victims of some criminals. Not all of us have the gift of forgiveness.
Overall, our message goes out to ex-prisoners to show that they are new persons who are committed to leading crime-free lives. It also goes to society not to bear grudges against them.
Online Reporter