VP Mnangagwa commends First Lady

GRACE MUGABBE USEFarirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, has saluted the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe for assisting Government in taking care of children of imprisoned mothers at her Children’s Home in Mazowe.

VP Mnangagwa said this while responding to questions on what Government was doing to ensure that the rights of children who were staying with their mothers in prison were respected.

“For those kids whose mothers are in prison for a long time, we also get assistance from the First Lady. She has an institution for children and she occasionally comes and identifies children and talk to their parents and if they agree the kids are taken to the institution where they get some of the best possible treatment. They (children) are returned to their parents once they are released,” VP Mnangagwa.

Earlier on, he had said that Government was aware of the special needs of children staying with their mothers in prisons, but resource constraints were affecting their ability to meet their dietary requirements in some instances resulting in the children being given diet meant for adults.

Statistics released by the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services last year showed that there were 29 infants staying with their mothers in prisons.

Presenting a report on the justice delivery system in the country last week, the chairperson of the Thematic Committee on Human Rights, Lieutenant General Mike Nyambuya (Retired) also bemoaned the absence of proper diet for children staying in prisons with their mothers.

“Women inmates have their prisons, but there is still a challenge in the provision of parental and post natal care and upkeep for children who are in prison with their mothers. ZPCS has no dietary scale for children accompanying their mothers in prison as gazetted in the Prisons (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2014 (No.12),” Rtd Lt Gen Nyambuya said.

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