Meat at centre of Chikurubi riots

Harare Bureau
PRISONERS who rioted at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in an attempted jailbreak in March had gone for more than three years without eating meat, a senior prison official revealed yesterday.

The government dietary requirements show that inmates should be fed meals that include meat at least three times a week.

Briefing a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security after touring the prison complex yesterday, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Mashonaland officer-in-charge, Assistant Commissioner George Denya and Chief Superintendent Gilbert Marange, said prior to the March riots, prison guards had foiled another one in February.

Said Chief Supt Marange; “For the past three years, the prisoners didn’t have meat. What’s required is to provide meat at least three times a week. The first time that the prisoners ate meat was last Friday (June 20) when the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority provided us with 250kgs of meat.”

Asst Comm Denya briefed the legislators on what happened on March 13 during the attempted jailbreak.

“On 13 February 2015 prisoners protested over food shortages. I came during the night and addressed them. There was concern that if the situation didn’t improve, something worse was going to happen,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say I managed to recognise the ring leader, it was a collective effort and from the look of things, the motive was that they now wanted to escape.’’

His testimony contradicts what ZPCS Deputy Commissioner General Agrey Machingauta told the same committee last month in Parliament.

Deputy Comm Machingauta alleged that the protests were engineered by opposition forces in the country to embarrass President Mugabe who was away in Japan on official business.

Asst Comm Denya denied that a political force was behind the rioting saying, “I’m not aware of that.”

On March 13 at around lunchtime, five inmates were shot dead after ignoring warning shots by security details following an attempted jailbreak at the country’s high security prison.

The prisoners are serving a sentence of eight years to 238 years.

Asst Comm Denya said the commotion could have been prevented if there was adequate security at the prison.

“We don’t have enough prison officers. The required ratio is one officer per five inmates. We’re asking for more than 160 new prison officers,” he said.

He said for the whole week prior to the rioting, they were giving the inmates sadza and soup because they had no relish. He said when rioting broke out, he was at the Grain Marketing Board sourcing food.

“I arrived late because there was congestion on my way and upon arrival I led a team of prison officers into the prison unaware the prisoners were laying an ambush with bricks, iron bars from water pipes which they had broken and wooden chairs,’’ he said.

Chief Supt Marange, who then was the officer-in-charge, refuted reports that there was prior intelligence before the riot.

He said they were forced to use live ammunition after they failed to contain the situation with prisoners having shouted that they were using blank rounds.

“We weren’t aware of the intended commotion prior to it, but intelligence officers had earlier visited the prison in their own investigations and we weren’t briefed about their findings,” he said.

“I didn’t perform my daily inspection of the prisoners because there was a delegation from the Red Cross who I was attending to. When my lieutenants came to tell me about the riot and that prisoners wanted me in their cells, I refused to go there for security reasons,” he said.

Chairman of the portfolio committee, Cde Clifford Sibanda, in an interview said: “There’s disparity on the testimonies from the prison officers, so the committee will have to sit and consider the submissions by both the deputy commissioner and his juniors.

“We can’t judge that he lied until the committee makes a determination after verifying the report. At the moment it’s still at the committee stage,” he said.

The parliamentarians also visited the nine prisoners alleged to have orchestrated the riots in their solitary cells and shared jokes with the likes of End Time Message leader Robert Martin Gumbura who is serving a 40-year jail term for rape, among other offences.