SOME Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Service (ZPCS) officers will be trained in Mozambique, in an exchange programme, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi revealed this yesterday during a courtesy call by a delegation from the National Penitentiary Services of Mozambique.
Minister Ziyambi said they want to help improve the welfare of prisoners.
“After the visits, we will exchange notes and see the possibilities of coming up with a best practice, in terms of ensuring that our prisoners are taken care of, according to international standards,” said Minister Ziyambi.
“To make sure that this is a success, we are going to send our officers to be trained in Mozambique and Mozambique will send their officers to be trained here in Zimbabwe.
“We are having this programme with Mozambique so that they can exchange notes and see if they can borrow best practices, and implementations, within our system and vice versa.
“We believe that this is a good thing, they have already started hitting the ground to familiarise themselves with our system.
“We are also in the process of amending our Prisons Act to incorporate aspects that were introduced by the constitution, in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders.
“We believe that these benchmark visits will enrich our own experiences and improve our services.”
The director of National Penitentiary Services of Mozambique, General Antonio Augusto, was impressed by projects being undertaken by local prisoners.
“I am impressed with all the workshops here but what impressed me more is the motorbike workshop, teaching prisoners how to assemble a motorbike from scratch, which is out of this world.”
— HMetro
