Chronicle Editor
Lumbidzani Dima, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT has availed vehicles and funds to complete the construction of Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) staff houses countrywide.
ZPCS Commissioner-General Moses Chihobvu revealed this at the graduation ceremony of 141 female and 261 male officers at Ntabazinduna Prisons and Correctional Service Training School last Friday.
Comm-General Chihobvu said Government was recapitalising the department, hence the ZPCS should brace itself for improved service delivery in line with its constitutional mandate.
Some of the key result areas under National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) for the correctional services include incarceration and improved welfare of inmates, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, production through income-generating projects and institutional development, which involves human capital management and policy interventions.
“May I remind you as graduands that the ZPCS is expected to deliver especially given the on-going recapitalisation of the department, for instance, the provision of farming implement as well as the recently distributed utility pick-up trucks, and of course not forgetting infrastructure development, on which funding has been provided to see the completion of some staff houses across prison stations,” he said.
“Given this level of capacitation, I therefore challenge you here present and those across our stations to deliver. Let’s wean ourselves from the cries of performance failures associated with transport and accommodation challenges as well as lack of equipment on prison farms given that such issues are receiving attention.”
The graduands completed conversion, intermediate security, basic stores and basic internal police courses.
The ZPCS boss said he was particularly impressed with the gender representation with 35 percent of graduands being female officers.
He said it has to be appreciated that the training courses were conducted under difficult times especially during the Covid-19 era but this did not deter the trajectory of working towards the organisation’s vision.
“It is not a secret that the modern prison management systems are going through some transformations with greater emphasis now being on offender rehabilitation and reintegration away from the punitive and retributive approaches.
“The rehabilitation thrust therefore requires that all stakeholders be taken on board with inmates no longer being viewed as criminals but rather patients who require treatment,” said Comm-Gen Chihobvu.
“It is therefore against this background that our human capital management and development should be seen continuously developing staff through various training programmes so that as a correctional department, the ZPCS should have a competitive advantage over other prisons and correctional service providers within the region and beyond.”
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