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VP Mnangagwa

Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter—
Prisoners saved Treasury more than $500 000 when they loaded and offloaded grain that the country imported under the drought relief programme aimed at assisting vulnerable families with food last year. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed this during a Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Strategic Plan Review Workshop in Kadoma last week, where he urged the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services to utilise its labour to raise funds for feeding and providing for the needs of inmates.

He said given the economic challenges facing the country, Treasury was unable to meet the budget requirements of the department, and as such its leadership was supposed to be innovative.

VP Mnangagwa said one such initiative was enrolling for the Command Agriculture Programme to produce food for inmates’ rations. He was responding to the presentation by ZPCS Deputy Commissioner-General Agrey Machingauta, who revealed that Treasury only allocated $79 million to the department in the 2017 National Budget against a requirement of $237 million.

Dep Comm-Gen Machingauta said they had no choice, but to make do with the allocation.

“I think your department requires a lot of innovation on your part as the leadership because the statistics you presented show that in many areas the shortfalls are very substantive,” said VP Mnangagwa.

“You have lots of land. I saw one item, where you have put some allocation for agricultural equipment. I think you can do quite a lot by submitting these challenges to the Command Agriculture programme because then you can be assisted to be very productive and then you can have some of the funds from that feeding item to other areas by producing your own food from prison farms.

“You have lots of labour and as Government we are willing to give you inputs from now on. I think this summer season you have done a bit, but we intend to support you even in winter so that you can be self-sufficient.”

VP Mnangagwa asked Dep Comm-Gen Machingauta the position of the International Labour Organisation on prisoners providing labour for commercial purposes.

Dep Comm-Gen Machingauta said: “They once objected to the provision of labour to commercial entities like farms and so on, but nevertheless here and there whenever it is asked for, we are providing because we know that we will never be able to comply with all the international standards as long as we are under sanctions”.

VP Mnangagwa then said: “For instance, yesterday (Tuesday) in Cabinet, I saw that your department has been assisting in the importation of grain into Zimbabwe by loading and offloading and you saved (Minister) Patrick Chinamasa (Treasury) $516 000.”

Dep Comm-Gen Machingauta said the ZPCS had enrolled for the Command Agriculture programme, adding that they could produce enough to feed inmates.