Chronicle Editor
Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
OVER 400 inmates with mental illness have for the past 10 years been stuck at the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) centres across the country following delays by the Mental Health Board in reviewing their cases for possible release.
The ZPCS’ major mental health institutions are Mlondolozi at Khami Prisons in Bulawayo and Chikurubi Psychiatric Unit at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare.
Some of the prisoners have since recovered and are now eligible for release and reintegration into society. However, the Mental Tribunal Board which has the mandate to determine the release of these inmates through fitness evaluation, has not sat for the past 10 years resulting in congestion as the numbers continue ballooning.
Section 68 of the Mental Health Act provides for the establishment of mental health boards.
The board is the first port of call where one’s case is reviewed for possible release. If satisfied that the patient can be released, it makes the necessary recommendations to the tribunal.
When the tribunal sits, it considers a patient’s case and then makes a final decision on whether to release the patient or order further detention.
At Mlondolozi Mental Health Institution, there are 244 inmates who have been locked up at the facility for the past decade awaiting competence evaluation by the board.
There are fears that a number of these inmates with mental illnesses might end up relapsing without hope of being released.
In an interview on the sidelines on a familiarisation tour of Khami Prisons, ZPCS Commissioner-General Moses Chihobvu said the inmates’ fate lies in the hands of the board, as they are not eligible for amnesty in the absence of intensive assessment.
He said the swelling number of the inmates is now straining the facilities and creating congestion.
“We still have more than 400 inmates who are mental patients at our mental health institutions and at Mlondolozi and we have 244 inmates who have not been seen by the mental health board. I have noted the request by the inmates and I will approach the authorities so that the board can sit and determine their fate,” he said.
Comm-Gen Chihobvu said he has since notified Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi of the issue so that he engages his Health and Child Care counterpart, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga.
“This will help address the issue of congestion at our facilities and already Mlondolozi is overwhelmed and full to capacity. The mental health board has not been sitting for the past 10 years because it had not been constituted,” he said.
“Now that the board has since been constituted, what is left is for the chairperson to call the meetings so that they can sit and determine the fate of the mental patients.”
Previously, the board could not sit because the chairperson had not been appointed.
“It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and Child Care to see to it that the board sits. We have engaged the Justice Minister so that he talks to the Minister of Health and Child Care over the issue,” said Comm-Gen Chihobvu.
Ms Lesion Siziba, who is among the 244 mental health patients detained at Mlondolozi for almost a decade awaiting competence evaluation by the mental health board, last year approached the Bulawayo Hight Court challenging her “unjustified” detention.
Ms Siziba committed infanticide in 2004 after suffering from post-natal depression.
In her court application citing VP Chiwenga, in his capacity as Health and Child Care Minister, Ms Siziba said she has since recovered and now eligible for release.
She sought an order compelling VP Chiwenga to set up a mental health board at the institution to review her condition for possible release.-@mashnets
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