The Sunday News
THE late controversial musician “Dr” Paul Matavire celebrated his release from prison with a song, Back from College in 1991 after serving a one-year jail term on rape charges. Matavire had been convicted of raping a visually impaired woman by a Gweru court in 1990. Through his song, Matavire, who was never short of wit, imagination and lyrics, recapitulated his experience behind bars.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome chiremba (Dr), back from college, kwamakadzidza zvakawanda,” Matavire’s female backing vocalists wailed, in high-pitched voices, as they sang part of the song’s chorus.
In the song, Matavire colloquially referred to prison as a college where he had been taught a lot of things, illustrating the positive impact prison time had on him and how it transformed and helped integrate him into mainstream society.
He is not the only former convict to bear such testimony.
Somehow, and most probably without intention, the maverick musician captured the main thrust of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) —to rehabilitate offenders as opposed to punishing them.
The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Service’s role, as captured in its mission statement is: “To protect society from the criminal elements through the incarceration and rehabilitating of offenders for their successful re-integration into society while exercising reasonable, safe, secure and humane control”.
The mission statement dovetails with the United Nations Basic Principles for Treatment of Prisoners.
ZPCS’s theme for 2015, carried over from last year, “Correctional Excellence Our Commitment,” also aptly captures the force’s main focus.
Anju Farm Prison in Nyamandlovu, Umguza District in Matabeleland North stands out as a paragon of ZPSC’s thrust to empower inmates with life skills which they can use after being released from prison.
The prison farm, which spans 203 hectares, is one of 23 such ZPCS facilities around the country which produce food for inmates in all prison stations across the country.
While most people might look at prison time as effectively implying condemnation to doom and rejection from mainstream society, inmates at Anju Farm Prison tell a different tale. They look at the time they are serving behind bars as an opportunity to turn a new leaf in their lives, and right their wrongs. The life skills inmates at the facility are being empowered with usher hope among them as they now positively look forward to life after incarceration.
Anju Farm Prison by its nature and set up has a strong bias towards agricultural activities thus inmates at the prison actively take part in farming at the facility, not as cheap labour but as apprentices.
One might thus choose to call the farm prison a pseudo agricultural college, whose entry qualifications, however, few of us may want to attain.
Talent Kampaundi of Gokwe, an inmate at Anju Farm Prison, was sentenced to five years in 2013 after being convicted of theft from his employer in Gokwe town.
He served part of his sentence at Khami Prison and with 30 months left on his sentence, he qualified to be transfered to Anju Farm Prison, where he testifies his life has been transformed.
Kampaundi is one of the inmates whose day-to-day life at the facility is underlined with farming activity and continuous learning of new and modern methods of farming from experts. He hopes to use the skills he has acquired thus far when he returns home to Gokwe.
Conservation farming is one of the skills that Kampaundi was empowered with and he feels the method of farming is the most suitable in his area famed for loose Kalahari soils. Anju Farm Prison has embarked on conservation farming, a practice which aims to conserve soil and water by using surface cover or mulch to minimise run-off and erosion as well as improve the conditions for plant establishment and growth.
“In Gokwe we use cattle to till the land and if one does not have enough draught power preparing for the summer crop is a challenge. With conservation farming I have learnt that one can grow their crops with minimum tillage and still achieve better yields. With just a hoe one can plant vast tracks of land.
“I actively participate in all the agricultural activities that are done here and that has enriched my farming knowledge. When I came here I only knew the conventional farming methods and could only grow the traditional crops.
“With the guidance we get from the farm managers we are now empowered to grow a variety of crops using various methods. I should say my prison time has been a blessing in disguise,” said the 24-year-old Kampaundi.
His counterpart Isaac Nyathi of Lupane said his stay at Anju Farm Prison has not only taught him a lot of life skills but has helped teach him how to live peacefully with other members of society.
“Being incarcerated is not the end of life. For me it actually has been a new beginning as I have learnt a lot of life-changing lessons. I now value the importance of living in peace with fellow citizens. I now know that it is important to respect people’s property and what it means to observe the law.
“For me coming to this prison has been an eye opener. I have been empowered with a lot skills. For me and many others here, this place feels more like a school rather than a prison because of the farming knowledge we are given everyday,” he said with a beaming face.
While there are reports of poor diet in some of the country’s prisons, it is a different tale at Anju Farm Prison as inmates eat the fruits of their toil — produce from the farm.
A total of 20 hectares of Anju Farm are under maize, 11,6 hectares cow peas, 4,5 hectares butternut and five hectares green mealies.
Anju Farm Prison is also into animal husbandry with a cattle herd of 27, hares and chickens being kept at the farm also.
Chief farm manager Principal Prison Officer Oswell Ushe told Sunday News, during a tour of the facility on Wednesday last week, that inmates at the facility did most of the work on the farm, with supervision from qualified personnel.
He said that bulk of the produce from the farm is for consumption by inmates in prisons in Matabeleland region, with priority, however, given to those at Anju.
“We produce mainly for consumption purposes. For produce like grain, we deposit it in the Quarter Master’s collection, who then decides on how to distribute it. For fresh perishables we are allowed to sell directly to other stations.
“I should, however, be quick to mention that we prioritise inmates at our facility. They are the ones who produce so they must be the ones who benefit. Our inmates here have the best diet in the world, probably better than what some people have at home because they eat a variety of foods which meet all the nutritional requirements,” he said.
“Much of farm work is done by prisoners and we only provide expert assistance. This is not a way of punishing them but rather empowering them with life skills. It’s actually part of our rehabilitation programme. We want to ensure that when they finally leave this place they are equipped with skills that will make them productive and give them a starting point in their new lives outside prison,” added Principal Prison Officer Ushe.
Officer in Charge of Anju Farm Prison, Chief Prison Officer Kuzivakwashe said apart from the agricultural activities that inmates engage in at the farm, there were a host of other programmes and activities which helped to rehabilitate offenders.
“Inmates that come here will have served part of their sentences in other facilities and will be left with 30 months or less on their sentence. There are various other factors that we also consider in selecting suitable candidates. We don’t only impart knowledge on agriculture to our inmates but we also have other activities that help them reform and prepare them for integration.
“We have a soccer team of inmates, which plays every week with prison officers and sometimes with teams from the Thembanani community. This allows the inmates to interact with people from mainstream society and helps prepare them for proper integration after release. Rehabilitation and integration are our main thrust and I can safely say here we are doing well in achieving that,” he said.
Anju Farm spans 203 hectares, of which 130 is arable. Of the 130 hectares, 40 are irrigable but due to lack of capacity, only 15 hectares are under irrigation.
The farm is being serviced by one borehole and management at the farm envisage drilling 10 more boreholes to increase land under irrigation to about 90 hectares and maximise production.
From the 20 hectares that are under maize, Anju Prison Farm expects to harvest about 200 tonnes of grain this year.
