President commends ZPS over land
Thursday, 15 December 2011 00:00
Bulawayo Bureau
PRESIDENT Mugabe has commended the Zimbabwe Prison Service for
embracing land reform and using its farms to feed inmates and impart agricultural knowledge as part of rehabilitating prisoners.The President was speaking at the 143rd ZPS passout parade at Ntabazinduna Prison Training School yesterday, where 514 pri-son officers, including 146 females, graduated after six months of training. He urged ZPS to aim to use its farms productively.
"Agricultural production remains the nation's economic mainstay. To this end, I am proud to mention that Government's land reform programme has afforded more land to the Zimbabwe Prison Service to encourage ZPS to be self-sustaining and thus relieving the fiscus from wholly footing the burden of feeding inmates," said President Mugabe.
He said the Government had shown its commitment to agriculture by giving ZPS 11 farms under the land reform progra-mme, to add on to the 13 they had before independence.
"The provision of this land has also offered inmates a platform on which to acquire knowledge and skills training on agricultural production," he said.
He urged ZPS to aim for maximum production on its farms.
The President said the presence of female recruits was encouraging as it was in keeping with the country's gender policy.
He said the trend represented a break from the colonial legacy of discrimination and prejudice against female officers.
"I am also gratified that the Zimbabwe Prison Service continues to recognise and address gender disparity as witnessed by the elevation of female officers to top posts in its hierarchy. Further, the female officers in positions of authority have vindicated the elevation by excelling in like manner with their male counterparts."
He said independence had ushered in a number of corrective policies in the justice delivery system.
The President said under colonial bondage, blacks were only allowed to hold inferior posts in all fields, regardless of their ability.
"The Zimbabwe Prison Service has thus, in line with the new Government policy, witnessed change that included promotion of blacks into the top echelons of authority and a paradigm shift in the penal system from a retributive to a reformative and rehabilitative approach," he said.
President Mugabe said the Government remained committed to improving working conditions for civil servants and uniformed forces.
He said the Government had set up an inter-ministerial committee to examine conditions of detention facilities adding that the committee's recommendations would soon be tabled before Cabinet.
Turning to the recruits, the President congratulated them for successfully undergoing a rigorous training programme, in which only five dropped out after failing to make the grade.
Areas covered during training include historical overview of the penal system, overview of the Zimbabwe Prison Service, prison administration, drill and weapon handling and civic education.
"The training curriculum, as exhibited by its robust and rich array of courses was tailor-made to meet the ever dynamic prison management systems and trends," said President Mugabe.
He said he was convinced the courses had moulded the recruits into competent, vigilant and professional officers who were ready to offer proficient services to the nation and other bodies, such as the United
Nations' Peacekeeping Operations on Prisons and Correctional Services requirements.
He singled out the inclusion of civic education, coupled with an external tour taken by the recruits to Mozambique to see the mass graves of fallen heroes of the liberation struggle, as having inculcated in them a spirit of allegiance, belonging and patriotism.
He encouraged the graduates to continually draw inspiration from the selfless sacrifices made by the departed and living sons and daughters of the struggle, whose commitment, selfless love and patriotism brought the country to where it is today.
"I would like to remind you that this career is not a stroll in the park. Society's high expectations will place you in the unenviable position of public scrutiny. I therefore urge you to desist from corruption and be disciplined in carrying out your duties," said President Mugabe.
The ZPS as a token of appreciation presented the President with a bull and two heifers.
Cabinet ministers, traditional leaders, service chiefs, civil servants and senior prison, police and military officers were among those who attended the graduation ceremony.
Labels: LAND REFORM, POLICE, ZPS
Read more...
Barotse meeting illegal – Police
Friday, January 14, 2011, 7:37
THE Zambia Police Service has maintained that the planned meeting today by a group calling itself the Linyungandambo and the Barotse Freedom Movement (BFM) remains cancelled and protesters will be arrested if they go ahead. Western Province police commanding officer Peacewell Mweemba said the police will arrest anyone who will attempt to assemble in Limulunga.
“The organisers of the meeting have been informed that their meeting has been cancelled and those who will attempt to defy the order should be ready to collide with the law,” Mr Mweemba said.
He said the message of the cancellation of the meeting planned for today is clear and those who will want to test the law will find out what it means to break the law.
Northern Rhodesian provinces in the 1920s
The Linyungandambo group and the BFM are insisting on a meeting which they are calling the Limulunga Declaration.
Sources within the Linyungandambo and the BFM say the planned meeting will go ahead with or without a police permit. The sources said the Linyungandambo is not calling for violence and that there is no need for the police to surround the Limulunga Village, the royal home of the Litunga.
“We are peaceful people. We have always been peaceful and all we want are our rights,” one source said.
He said the message of the cancellation of the meeting planned for today is clear and those who will want to test the law will find out what it means to break the law.
So far, the situation is calm. In the market place in Limulunga, some people are not even aware of what is going on and are wondering who the Linyungandambo is representing.
Some teachers at Limulunga Basic School described the planned meeting as a scandal which Government should not allow.
The teachers said it is not right for the Linyungandambo and the BFM to cause confusion and panic in Mongu because Zambia is a country of many tribes.
The teachers said those who are threatening to expel non-Lozi-speaking people from Western Province should also start calling for Lozis outside Western Province to go back to the province.
The Western Province administration has named a Mr Maxwell Mututwa as the man who is allegedly behind the clandestine acts of calling for secession. A team of senior citizens in Mongu early in the week went to Senanga to meet Mr Mututwa to urge him to stop his activities.
The Linyungandambo and BFM have been going around homes in Mongu and Limulunga asking for donations towards the planned meeting.
Meanwhile, REBECCA CHILESHE reports that the Kuomboka Kufuluhela Committee of Lusaka has endorsed the stand of the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) that discussions on the Barotseland Agreement should focus on a unitary state.
Committee chairperson Oliver Saasa said during a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that it is important to resolve the issue.
Professor Saasa said as a cultural association, the Kuomboka committee would like to assure all ethnic groups in Western Province and outside that anyone who recognises past kings of Barotseland who brought tribes together must recognise members of these tribes as equals.
He said besides, there is no such tribe as Lozi as the Lozi group consists of many ethnic and tribal groups and the Lozi language itself is not even originally Zambian but a derivative of the Sesotho language following the invasion of the Barotseland by Kololos.
“The committee would like to call upon both Government and the BRE to provide the needed leadership in facilitating dialogue as this is the only way that unresolved issues can be dealt with,” he said.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, PEACEWELL MWEEMBA, ZPS
Read more...
ZP violated human rights under Mtonga, alleges Sikatana
By Emily Mujuda and Chibaula Silwamba
Monday March 19, 2007 [02:00]
FOREIGN affairs minister Mundia Sikatana on Friday violated that the Zambia Police Service was notorious and violated human rights at the time Kanyama PF member of parliament Henry Mtonga was inspector general. But Mtonga rose on a point of order and argued that Sikatana was mixing up issues of court ruling, corporal punishment and treason.
However, Sikatana said Mtonga should not mislead the National Assembly and the nation that it was lawful to do harm to people. Debating the estimates of expenditures for the Human Rights Commission, Sikatana said he would make reference to the police service then a force, which Mtonga was leading because he was there to defend himself.
“When Honourable Mtonga was IG the police was notorious,” he said. Sikatana said there were several human rights abuses during the first and second Republics. He said the first Republic had constitutionalised dictatorship and detained people for many years without trial.
Sikatana alleged that a person was once killed in the prisons and was buried the same day and they only knew about it weeks later. “We exhumed the body, hired a medical doctor to do the postmortem, the medical doctor found 201 assult spots of canes on his body, and when I wanted to take up the case I was locked up,” he narrated. Sikatana said there was even a time when he confronted then president Dr Kenneth Kaunda about the human rights violations.
According to his curriculum vitae, Sikatana has been a lawyer specialised in human rights, mostly representing political detainees since 1974. He said the human rights were dear to the MMD government. Sikatana therefore urged all parliamentarians to support the budgetary allocation to the Human Rights Commission. But Mtonga said Sikatana should know that the courts passed punishment and that the police just had to execute the courts’ ruling, even if it meant canning the offender. However, he admitted that Sikatana had confronted Dr Kaunda over human rights violations.
Mtonga said the Human Rights Commission should do more to investigate human rights violations such as the death of prominent politician Baldwin Nkumbula and the Gabon air disaster, in which Zambian footballers died. Kasama Central member of parliament Dr Saviour Chishimba said human rights were a symbol of freedom. Monze member of parliament Jack Mwiimbu urged the Zambian government to speak out on human rights violations in neighbouring countries.
Labels: MTONGA, ZPS
Read more...
