Documentary Exposes Zimbabwe's Rotten Prison System
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A documentary shot inside the jails of Zimbabwe has shocked the African nation, who has appealed for help for its prisoners who live in captivity in poor conditions.
According to the BBC, the film was shot secretly over several months by a South African TV channel. The documentary aired on Tuesday and depicted the inhumane situation that is going on inside Zimbabwe’s prison cells where inmates perish of disease and starvation. The producer of the short, Johann Abrahams, said that Zimbabwe’s government was now pleading for donor aid.
"They're looking for... humanitarian aid to help them with food, clothing, legal assistance for prisoners, all of that," said Abrahams. "They just can't cope. They acknowledge that they have a serious problem and obviously it's the previous government of President Robert Mugabe that should be answering these questions," he added.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai urged for donors and trading partners to help the government. He also said that in the few weeks that the new type of government took office there has been small but significant progress.
"We have started paying civil servants a monthly allowance to allow the public sector to begin working again and provide an essential stimulus to the economy," he wrote in the UK's Times newspaper. "We have overseen the opening of hospitals and schools, the taming of hyperinflation, the lowering of prices of basic commodities and the rationalization of utility tariffs. Most importantly, this new political dispensation has delivered hope to a country devoid of optimism or expectation."
In the documentary, prisoners describe how the sick and healthy cohabit in overcrowded cells. The movie also shows how prison guards have converted cells into hospital wards for the dying. It said that the dead were thrown to the prison grounds where the bodies rot with maggots moving all around them. According to the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender, there are 55 prisons in Zimbabwe with a capacity to hold 17,000 prisoners. However, it's been estimated that about 35,000 inmates live under unhygienic and overcrowded jails.
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