Khami Prison moves towards self-sustainability

WITH a staff complement of 67 consisting of prison officers, college students on attachment, inmates and local community members, Khami Prison Complex on the outskirts of Bulawayo runs a fully-equipped manufacturing factory that makes uniforms for prisoners and prison officers in line with the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services’ thrust for self-sustainability.

The factory is one of the many income generating projects at Khami Prison Complex that include a carpentry workshop, motor vehicle repairs and spray painting workshop, welding workshop and nutritional gardens.

The projects are not just for generating income but are also used to impart skills to prisoners under the prison’s rehabilitation programme.

The inmates can enrol for courses such as animal husbandry, carpentry, welding, fashion designing and crop farming.

Armed with such skills, inmates can easily be reintegrated to society upon their release. Prison officers are also equipped with the skills and expertise to start businesses upon retirement.

Khami Prison Complex’s Principal Correctional Officer (PCO) , Tendai Katuwa, took Chronicle on a tour of the factory to explain their operations.

“We have 67 people who include prison officers, inmates, people from local communities as well as college students on attachment who work in this factory. We produce uniforms for both inmates and prison officers,” he said.

“Right now, we are busy with uniforms for mental health patients at Mlondolozi. We expect the fabric for the rest of the prisoners to be delivered soon so that we can start working on new uniforms for the inmates.”

By manufacturing its own uniforms for prison officers and inmates, the prison is saving a lot of money for other operations.

“Inmates who are part of the team learn a lot here and we expect them to use those skills and expertise to start their own businesses when they leave the prison,” said PCO Katuwa.

He said employing 10 people from local communities that surround Khami Prison Complex was a deliberate move aimed at fostering good relations.

“We are also producing protective clothing for companies and mines and our charges are very reasonable. College students on attachment also benefit a lot from working here,” said PCO Katuwa.

Next to the clothing factory is a carpentry workshop where inmates were hard at work repairing sofas brought in by a Bulawayo resident.

The carpentry shop makes or repairs sofas, beds and wardrobes, among other furniture.

In the welding workshop, a team of inmates and prison officers were working on a sliding gate.

“Two of those guys are inmates and as you can see, they are working together with prison officers and if it wasn’t for their uniforms, one would not know who is who from that team,” said PCO Katuwa.

“Clients bring their own materials for sliding gates and we only charge for labour.”

Khami Prison Complex vehicles are also repaired at their repair workshop that is manned by both inmates and prison officers. The workshop also repairs vehicles for members of the public for a fee.