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Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS) will continue to invest resources in manpower development and gender parity as it makes strides to become the leading correctional service provider in the region, ZPCS Commissioner General Moses Chihobvu has said.
He made the remarks during the graduation of 49 officers in Management and Leadership Development course at ZPCS Staff College.
Commissioner Chihobvu said a well-developed work force was the most important resource for any organisation.
“It is argued that inadequately trained employees are likely to experience poor job performance and increased levels of work related stress. In this regard training helps us grow personally, professionally and socially,” he said.
“It should be noted that staff development helps the organisation become better and broadens perspectives on different societies, cultures and correctional systems.
As part of the manpower development, he said ZPCS was fully embracing technology and widening its technological base in all areas in order to meet demands of the 21st century and effectively deal correctional issues associated with digital age.
“The ZPCS is in the process of transforming, remember we used to have prisons without the correctional, now that we have added correctional we have transformed the organisation so that it can match other correctional institutions in the world. So on technological development, we have been authorised to start smart prisons where by all prisons should be driven technologically,” he said.
He added that ZPCS was in a strategic partnership with the Zimbabwe Open University in crafting training content on modern correctional ways which will help correctional officers build on strengths, address identified deficiencies and build a formidable workforce which is geared towards attaining set goals.
Speaking on the side lines of the same graduation, ZPCS officer commanding Mashonaland central, Commissioner Charity Gezi reiterated the importance of putting in place strategies that promote gender equality and was fully endorsing the role of women’s empowerment and gender equality as a key driver of the process of sustainable development of the country.
“The strategies contained in the policy do not only unlock the potential of women but take deliberate efforts to address the gender disparities across the organisation. Although we have not yet the met the 50 percent gender equality, we are happy that at least we have achieved above 30 percent in empowering women,” she said.
Commissioner Gezi, highlighted the importance of economically empowering women as a sustainable way to achieve gender equality across all sectors.
“The equality can be achieved through various empowerment programmes that Government and partners provide, such as access to finance and markets, capacity building, provision of technology and workspace, amongst others,” she said.
The women who graduated said the ZPCS had made significant progress in recognising the efforts made by women to uplift their lives but called for more to be done.
“We thank the ZPCS for affording the girl child a place in its rank and file. We thanks the leaders for according us women a chance to rise higher though the levels are still below the required,” said Prison Correctional officer Anna Sekani.
Online Reporter