Chronicle Editor
Lumbidzani Dima, Chronicle Reporter
THE anguish of watching his cancer-ravaged daughter draw closer to death every day because he could not raise money needed for possible life-saving surgery drove Solomon Mpande to resort to crimes that landed him in jail. The 28-year-old has been in Bulawayo Prison for nine months with 47 more in prison, ahead for him.
He has learnt that crime does not pay no matter the circumstances that drive one to bend societal rules and norms. Chronicle caught up with Mpande and other inmates during the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) family week and they could not hide how overjoyed they were to feel loved by their relatives and friends who had visited them.
ZPCS reintroduced family week, which started on Friday last week and will end this Friday, in an attempt to successfully reintegrate incarcerated inmates into society. Mpande is among dozens of inmates who have applauded the reformatory approach that has been adopted by ZPCS whereby inmates are taught life skills that help them make a living once released from incarceration.
This is opposed to the archaic approach where the aim was to simply punish offenders. So successful has been the system that prison services from other countries in Africa have been visiting Zimbabwe to learn, with a view of replicating it in their own countries.
Mpande told Chronicle that he was sentenced to 56 months in prison for nine counts of theft of motor vehicle parts with the biggest case being the theft of a Toyota GD6. He insists he is not a thief by nature, but the situation he was in forced him to take such deplorable actions.
“I was not born a thief. I had never stolen anything when I was growing up and my mother can testify to this. But when my child was born with some sort of cancer about three years ago, I could not just sit and watch. The doctors said we needed a total of US$3 000 for a surgery. As a father I had to stand up and do something or my cute little angel would die,” he said, a sorrowful expression stealing over his face.
Mpande said he moved from his home in Thorngrove to Nketa in order to do his ‘business’ without family members noticing. He would steal parts from parked vehicles at night and sell them, then save the money, but the process was slow for him so he planned to steal a car that would bring in the money that he needed.
“I then went to Harare, and successfully stole a Toyota GD6 and I passed through all the road blocks leading to Bulawayo. I sold parts of that car separately and got the money without anyone catching me. An unfortunate incident occurred three houses away from where I was staying.
Parts of a car were stolen at night and the boys who lived there knew that I dealt in car parts so I was their first suspect even though I was innocent on that one.
“The police came, searched my place and found car parts, some which had been reported as stolen to them. That is how I was arrested and convicted,” he said.
Mpande said being in prison is not that bad, but leaving his family behind is stressful because when he thinks of them, he feels bad.
He said the thought of being in prison for crime is what he regrets, but the fact that he was able to raise the money to save his now three-year-old daughter comforts him.
Mpande was visited by his mother, his wife and their daughter, whom he last saw before being convicted.
A Chronicle news crew also got a glimpse of family week at Mlondolozi Female and Mental Health Prison housed in Khami Prison. Abel Sibanda (35) was convicted of attempted murder and rape when he was 26 years of age.
Having served eight years in prison, and three years without getting a visit from anyone has made him take it as his own home.
Sibanda said he teamed up with two of his friends to fight with someone.
“When we arrived at his house, we found him and his wife naked and we fought with them. This is how I found myself in prison after they sentenced each of us to ten years in jail for attempted murder and rape,” he said.
Sibanda was evasive when asked if he had raped the complainant.
However, he happily declared that gone are the days when he would count days and years as they passed by because of the rehabilitation he was receiving in prison. He said the most difficult period during his stay was when he lost his father and grandfather at the same time, but could not attend their funerals.
“When my father was coming from South Africa to visit me in prison, he was involved in a car accident and died on the spot just as he entered Bulawayo. When my grandfather heard the news, he collapsed and died on the spot as well.
My aunts came and told me the news here, I could not handle it. I thank the chaplains for the counselling they gave me, because the pain I felt was too much, in a way I blamed myself for their deaths,” said Sibanda.
He said he last got a visit three years ago. Even during this ongoing family week, no one had visited so far. He finds solace in being part of a group that has been entertaining visitors.
Moreblessing Ncube, a mother of three was convicted of fraud which she says she started way back in 2010 when she was still in South Africa, just to get fast cash.
“The truth is the motive behind my fraud was to get fast money. I would promise people a house to rent, and they had to pay half down to get the house, then I would vanish after receiving payment. I thought I was clever until they caught me unaware in the simplest manner.
“The person I had conned of US$140 came back to me using a relative, who approached me looking for a house, took me out to Nandos and talked to me nicely. I did not suspect a thing. I even showed her my vending bay at 6th Avenue, then the following day the police got to me at that exact spot,” she said.
Ncube said she has learnt a lot in prison, and once she is released, she will implement all the skills that she has learnt.
She said she can now use her hands to do many things. She urged society not to make money through other people’s sorrows and tears lest they learn the hard way. She highlighted that she has realised that she would get a lot of money from conning people, but nothing productive came from it.
The other inmate who was arrested for theft is a grandchild to the late liberation struggle and former Zapu official Dauti Salatiel Mabusa.
Lerato Mabusa was convicted of stealing US$6 000, P8 000 and R7 000 from her grandfather before fleeing to South Africa.
“I had come to Zimbabwe just to give birth, but when I wanted to go back my grandfather asked me to stay a little longer until the child was a bit grown up. I did not listen to him or anyone, I wanted to go, but I had no money, so I stole from him.
“Then my uncles dragged me from South Africa and handed me over to the police here in Bulawayo. I was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison,” she said.
She said she feels bad for what she did to her ever loving grandfather who passed away when she was in prison. She is, however, grateful that before he died, he would visit her and tell her that he had forgiven her and how much he loved her.
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