Human Rights Lawyers Blast Zim Gvt

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By SARAH NCUBE

Published: November 9, 2009

ZIMBABWE – GWERU- Members of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in the Midlands Province say the Zimbabwe justice system does not respect people’s liberties.

Brian Dube, one of the members of ZLHR and also the National Association of Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO) Midlands chairperson The Zimbabwe Telegraph that justice in Zimbabwe was only accorded to those who have access to and can afford legal representation.

Dube was speaking after a visit to Hwahwa Prison under the Prisoners Rights Programme, which seeks to help those that in jails and cannot afford legal services to have access to the services for free.

Dube said as ZHLR and also as the chairperson of NANGO in the Midlands region he had seen that it was necessary for the lawyers to intervene in cases they feel that justice had not prevailed.

Dube said that some of the courts were just throwing people into the prison.

“Our courts are not sensitive to the right to liberty and to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. There are a lot of people rotting in prisons without any trial and others are not given time to look for fines simply because they do not have legal representation,” Dube said.

In August under the programme, Dube of Gundu, Mawarire and Partners and the Midlands board member of ZLHR, Hillary Garikai of Garikai and Partners helped 40 prisoners get bail after they intervened.

“Most of the prisoners, some who were on remand, were terminally ill and some of them even had to be carried to us by the prison guards,”Dube said.

“During our interactions with them we realised that some of them had been on remand for some time. Due to transport problems within the prison services, some have failed to come for trial and they are forgotten in the jail.”

Dube also said that others were people who could just have been given time to raise fines. He said some of the prisoners, most picked in beerhalls for fights, confessed that their relatives were not even aware that they were at Hwahwa as there was no stationery at the prison for prisoners to communicate with their families and loved ones.

Dube said it was too costly for the State to feed these prisoners instead they could be given the opportunity to go and look for money to pay fines which would be even more beneficial to the state.

“In particular, we visited the Shurugwi Court after suspecting the insensitivity of the court in not granting convicts time to pay,” read part of the report that was compiled by the two lawyers.

Dube said although they had successfully managed to help some of the prisoners out, they were shocked during the recent visit to find that there were again more people and they had to apply to the Shurugwi Court to allow inmates to be given time to pay fines and they were released.

The report by the lawyers also indicate that even some mentally ill people were at the prison instead of them being reffered to a health institution.

Sources said that although food supply had improved at the prison just outside Gweru, malnbutrition was rife and prisoners who required ARV’s were not getting them.