Maravi

(ZIMPAPERS) Soft-spoken Iron Lady

Soft-spoken Iron Lady
Sunday, 13 February 2011 09:50 Features
By Susan Tokwe-Chota

WHEN she left home to join the liberation struggle in 1977 at just 18 years, Ms Fadzai Mupure knew and accepted the fact that she might never see her family again.

As in all combat, people are killed or maimed, but that did not stop her.
She was determined to fight for the country’s independence like the majority of the youths of that time. As was the case with most youngsters, she left home in the company of five other schoolmates and of the six, only two were male.

“I was only in Form Three but, strangely, I was not scared at all. I was prepared to fight for my country’s freedom at whatever cost,” she said.
Today, Ms Mupure is the Deputy Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Prison Service, the first female to hold such a rank since independence.

Although she was promoted by President Mugabe in 2008, she was only conferred with her rank at a ceremony early last month because she had been away in Sudan on a tour of duty for one-and-a-half years.
Deputy Commissioner Mupure said although her parents were not really enthusiastic about her decision to join the liberation struggle, they had no choice but to let her go.
“I never said goodbye to them, but all the same, they knew that I would join the struggle one day. The situation prevailing at the time is what made me leave home,” she said.

When she came back from war, she did not rest on her laurels, instead she went back to school where she undertook a course in secretarial studies, bookkeeping and typing at a Harare college.
She was demobilised from the army in 1982 and joined the prison service in 1986.
But, why the prison service, of all the uniformed forces?

Deputy Commissioner Mupure said she just developed an interest for the organisation and decided to “try something new”, since she is always up to a challenge. She never imagined that one day she would go down in the history books as the first female to hold her current post.

According to her, there were 20 female recruits in her group and only one dropped out.
The soft-spoken Iron Lady said she did not find the training very difficult as she had been through a tougher recruitment exercise.
From Chikurubi Training Depot, she was posted to Mutare Prison, where she sat accelerated promotion examinations and was promoted to senior prison officer in her fourth year as a member of the service.

It was after her transfer to Khami Maximum Prison as chief prison officer some nine years later, that she felt the sky was the only limit as she made her mark at the male-dominated institution.
“Khami was challenging because it was dominated by males and is a maximum prison,” said Deputy Commissioner Mupure.
“I learnt a lot during my tenure there as deputy officer-in-charge.”
During those nine years, she had worked at Shurugwi Female Prison, Chikurubi Female Prison, Mashonaland Region headquarters and Mlondolozi Prison at Khami.

She has also worked as staff officer for Midlands/Masvingo region. According to her, working at the regional headquarters had its challenges because there was a lot to learn.

While she was being promoted and moving from one prison to the other, the deputy commissioner still pursued her studies. In between, she sat her O-level examinations and passed before enrolling for a Diploma in Marketing.

She is also a holder of other certificates.

In 2005, she was appointed Assistant Commissioner and worked as deputy officer commanding Mashonaland region before being appointed acting officer commanding the same region in 2006.

How do male subordinates and inmates treat her?

“Generally, all the males that I have worked with have been respectful and co-operative. That has, in fact, given me the confidence to continue working hard and be where I am today,” said the deputy commissioner.

She also added that she has been able to overcome most challenges through delegating and consulting her subordinates.

According to her, teamwork leads to success.

Deputy Commissioner Mupure said there has been a commendable improvement inasfar as the promotion of females in the service is concerned.

She said the highest other female officer before her reached the rank of superintendent.
And working in Darfur?

“It was a bit tough because Sudan is a foreign country and there is war. I was a prison advisor to the country’s prisons and this helped me gain more experience and exposure,” she said.
As a woman and a mother, her dream is to see to it that female inmates as well as their children are properly looked after since they have special needs.

She is also into farming albeit on a small scale.
Deputy Commissioner Mupure was born on December 1, 1959 at Ndanga Hospital in Zaka to peasant parents. She is the fifth born in a family of four boys and three girls. She did her primary education at Saint

Don Bosco and later on went to Dadaya High School. Moving from prison to prison in a way affected her children’s (Talent (29) and Faith (27) ) education because she had to move with them.
However, she had to find ways for them to adjust to these relocations. When she is not at work, she likes listening to music, reading as well as going to church. And her words of encouragement to other women aspiring to be in leading roles?

“Everything takes hard work. Never look down upon yourself because you are a woman. If you work hard wherever you are, no matter what your position is, people are bound to notice and you will surely be rewarded,” she said.

Labels: LIBERATION

posted by MrK @ 2:11 AM