Online Reporter
Arron Nyamayaro
JUSTICE, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has urged prison officers to keep boosting their educational qualifications to enhance their capacity to deal with sophisticated criminals.
Speaking during a celebration in Harare on Saturday, hosted by ZPCS Commissioner-General Moses Chihobvu, Minister Ziyambi commended the prison service for encouraging staff to enhance their academic qualifications. He also praised Chihobvu, who recently attained a doctorate, for helping shift prisons from a punitive system to a correctional approach.
Minister Ziyambi said officers must remain strategic and committed, applying knowledge gained through study to improve prison management, strengthen discipline, and respond effectively to the changing nature of crime.
“Prisons should not only be places of confinement but institutions that rehabilitate and contribute to correction,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi urged prison officers to avoid drug abuse and to focus on preparing prisoners for reintegration into society.
“Everyone is a potential inmate, it is only that some people are luck or their criminal activities are yet to be caught,” he said.
“As prison officers, I urge you to further your education.”
He used Chihobvu’s academic milestone as an example of discipline and perseverance, describing the Commissioner-General as a determined person.
“Age and his position as the Commissioner General did not limit him from furthering his education,” Minister Ziyambi said.
“He looked at himself and said ‘I will conquer that’—and today we are here celebrating.”
He said critical thinking, developed through education, helps not only in the correctional system but also in everyday family life.
“I liked what he said. It helps us as a people to consider each other.”
Commissioner-General Chihobvu said he was driven to further his education after failing to complete his studies to join the liberation struggle, adding that he later witnessed how education could change lives.
“Growing up in a poor background gave me the courage to further my education after being disturbed by the liberation struggle,” he said. “Knowledge is power and it is needed in changing personal, family life and the nation at large.”
He challenged his officers to continue studying, saying the prison system has made provisions for inmates to access educational opportunities.
“We have opened cells for inmates to further their education, allow them to join others for graduation and even attend lobola functions,” he said. Commissioner-General Chihobvu thanked his wife, Marian Chihobvu, for supporting his studies.
