In light of recent revelations that four officers from Khami Prison have been admitted with serious illnesses as a result of consuming illegal substances, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) has urged its employees to resist the allure of drugs that could endanger their health.
At a graduation ceremony for officers who completed the Conversion, Security, Civic Education, Basic Stores, and Basic Special Weapons and Tactics courses in Ntabazinduna yesterday, ZPCS Commissioner-General Moses Chihobvu gave a warning to prison guards.
621 officers in total, 479 men and 142 women, representing all 10 provinces of the nation, graduated. Comm-Gen Chihobvu stated in his statement during a visit to Khami Prison earlier.
Emmerson Mnangagwa recently said drug and substance abuse continues to rob Zimbabwe of the youth dividend that should be at the centre of the country’s developmental thrust.
“Please desist from taking drugs. The President is on record speaking about the fact that we need to combat this. Let’s have a drug-free institution. Let’s go back to our friends and tell them the dangers of drugs. When I was in Khami this week the doctor told me that there are four people who are sick because they were taking some of this illicit alcohol. We have people who are now dying by taking these drugs. So go out there and tell people about the dangers of partaking in this,” Comm-Gen Chihobvu said.
Of the 621 officers who graduated yesterday, 279 took the conversion, something that Comm-Gen Chihobvu said the organisation stood in good stead as their knowhow would help in efforts to standardise the ZPCS’s operations.
“Among the graduands we have today, a total of 279 officers underwent the Conversion Course. The course is meant to develop junior and middle managers for them to become competent leaders who are focused, dependable, honest, knowledgeable and capable of working under pressure towards achieving organisational set goals.
More so, the course serves to produce supervisors and managers who are able to standardise the ZPCS’s operations with the view to effectively and efficiently utilise the organisation’s resources.
It is also aimed at reaffirming the core responsibilities and obligations of the organisation towards its constitutional mandate as well as adding value to middle managers so as to improve their competences as supervisors and implementers of organisational policies.
It is for this reason that the course package included modules such as Psychology, Sociology, Entrepreneurship, Corrections, Counselling, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well as Prison Administration and Management,” he said.
With 132 of the graduating officers undergoing Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) training, Comm-Gen Chihobvu said the ZPCS was in a position to deal with today’s sophisticated criminals. This was the first time that the ZPCS had successfully run its own SWAT training.
“Worldwide, offenders have become more sophisticated in outwitting law enforcement officers. However, I am pleased to note that the ZPCS is not lagging behind in its efforts to thwart such covert operations.
This has seen us training 132 officers in Special Weapons and Tactics. The course is physically and mentally demanding, and I am advised that only one student dropped out while all the 21 female students endured till the end.
The course is aimed at producing officers who are competent in swift response to prison riots, escorting high security risk inmates, tracking escapees as well as providing protection to Very Important Persons (VIPs).
“This is the first time that the ZPCS has managed to internally run this Training Course after having previously outsourced training services from other sister security organisations. I am glad that our resource persons in this field have also provided training services to Eswatini and currently in Namibia. This should be highly applauded.
We can safely say that as an organisation we are moving in the right direction that seeks to solve contemporary issues which affect the implementation of the ZPCS’s constitutional mandate,” he said.
Comm-Gen Chihobvu also said the ZPCS had a key role to play in the country’s long-term economic future, as the nation could only be productive if its citizens knew they were safe all the time.
“You may want to realise that the ZPCS has a huge task of fulfilling the five-year Strategic Plan (2021-2025) whose key result areas include incarceration and improved welfare of inmates; rehabilitation and integration of offenders; production through income generating projects and institutional development which involves Human Capital Management and Policy Interventions.
Hence, your training has come at the appropriate time when the country is moving towards achieving the Second Republic’s vision of “Towards a Prosperous and Empowered Upper Middle-Income Society by 2030.
“To achieve this vision, we are all guided by the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) which outlines the policy and strategic thrust for the country and the Treasury Budget Framework for the five-year period. In this vein, the objective of NDS1 is to sustain a positive economic growth driven by key economic sectors namely agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing.- Sunday News