zimfinalpush
Prisoners in Zimbabwe routinely dying from starvation, illness / Zimbabwe's starving border jumpers
Two new features:
From IRIN...
Two former inmates have described to IRIN the horrendous conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe's prison system, where prisoners routinely die from illness and starvation, and are urging human-rights organisations to make an independent assessment of the country's jails.
Zimbabwe has roughly 35,000 people incarcerated in 42 jails, but this is well over their intended capacity of about 17,000 inmates.
The country is in the [...] midst of an economic meltdown, in which the plight of prisoners seems all but forgotten: inflation is running at 2,200 percent, unemployment is above 80 percent, and shortages of electricity, fuel and food are commonplace.
Moreover, as a consequence of drought and the disruptions to agriculture caused by President Robert Mugabe's fast-track land reform programme, which redistributed white-owned farmland to landless blacks, the staple food, maize, is also in short supply.
John, a recently released inmate who declined to be identified, told IRIN that there were often food shortages. "In the morning, prisoners drink a very watery broth made from maizemeal, water and salt; in the afternoon, they are fed plain green vegetables with 'sadza' [maizemeal porridge], which is repeated in the evenings."
He said [that] there were times when they had to make do with a single meal per day, and the food was often so badly prepared that some inmates had stopped eating.
In the capital, Harare, a medical orderly employed by the health department and working in prison services, told IRIN that more than one hundred inmates had died of pellagra at Harare Central and Chikurubi Maximum prisons since the beginning of the year.
Pellagra is caused by a deficiency of vitamin B3 and trypophan, an essential amino acid found in meat, poultry, fish and eggs, all foodstuffs that are no longer available in the canteens of the Zimbabwe Prison Services, or to employees of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe National Army. The security forces are now served sadza and brown beans, because the government has insufficient funds to provide other foodstuffs.
The symptoms of pellagra include high sensitivity to sunlight, aggression, insomnia, weakness and mental confusion, followed by dementia and, eventually, death.
"There is a disaster waiting to happen, if it is not already happening - every day, dead bodies are recovered, especially at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, where as many as 10 deaths can be recorded in one day. Health conditions are also terrible, as the Zimbabwe Prison Services has no money to treat the inmates," the medical orderly, who asked to remain anonymous, told IRIN.
Tendai, another former inmate of Chikurubi prison, told IRIN that the prison authorities were also no longer able to provide them with toiletries. "If your relatives do not bring you some soap then you will go on and develop skin diseases. In addition, the government is no longer able to provide inmates with prison garb, leaving many to depend on relatives to supply them with clothes, or be forced to go naked."
In the past three months, there was no clean drinking water available at Chikurubi, Tendai said, because the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, a parastatal company, did not have the necessary capacity to supply water to the high-security complex. Water bowsers had been brought to the prisons, but the water quality was inadequate for drinking.
A recent visit by a delegation of parliamentarians to Chikurubi found that toilets had not been flushed for weeks, because there was no running water, and [that] pages torn from Bibles were being used as toilet paper. The unsanitary conditions have made diarrhoea and skin diseases a permanent feature of prison life.
In response to the rapidly deteriorating conditions in the prison system, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said [that] the government was working on formulating an open prison system, in which offenders would serve part of their jail terms at their homes to help decongest the prisons.
Zimbabwe has roughly 35,000 people incarcerated in 42 jails, but this is well over their intended capacity of about 17,000 inmates.
The country is in the [...] midst of an economic meltdown, in which the plight of prisoners seems all but forgotten: inflation is running at 2,200 percent, unemployment is above 80 percent, and shortages of electricity, fuel and food are commonplace.
Moreover, as a consequence of drought and the disruptions to agriculture caused by President Robert Mugabe's fast-track land reform programme, which redistributed white-owned farmland to landless blacks, the staple food, maize, is also in short supply.
John, a recently released inmate who declined to be identified, told IRIN that there were often food shortages. "In the morning, prisoners drink a very watery broth made from maizemeal, water and salt; in the afternoon, they are fed plain green vegetables with 'sadza' [maizemeal porridge], which is repeated in the evenings."
He said [that] there were times when they had to make do with a single meal per day, and the food was often so badly prepared that some inmates had stopped eating.
In the capital, Harare, a medical orderly employed by the health department and working in prison services, told IRIN that more than one hundred inmates had died of pellagra at Harare Central and Chikurubi Maximum prisons since the beginning of the year.
Pellagra is caused by a deficiency of vitamin B3 and trypophan, an essential amino acid found in meat, poultry, fish and eggs, all foodstuffs that are no longer available in the canteens of the Zimbabwe Prison Services, or to employees of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe National Army. The security forces are now served sadza and brown beans, because the government has insufficient funds to provide other foodstuffs.
The symptoms of pellagra include high sensitivity to sunlight, aggression, insomnia, weakness and mental confusion, followed by dementia and, eventually, death.
"There is a disaster waiting to happen, if it is not already happening - every day, dead bodies are recovered, especially at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, where as many as 10 deaths can be recorded in one day. Health conditions are also terrible, as the Zimbabwe Prison Services has no money to treat the inmates," the medical orderly, who asked to remain anonymous, told IRIN.
Tendai, another former inmate of Chikurubi prison, told IRIN that the prison authorities were also no longer able to provide them with toiletries. "If your relatives do not bring you some soap then you will go on and develop skin diseases. In addition, the government is no longer able to provide inmates with prison garb, leaving many to depend on relatives to supply them with clothes, or be forced to go naked."
In the past three months, there was no clean drinking water available at Chikurubi, Tendai said, because the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, a parastatal company, did not have the necessary capacity to supply water to the high-security complex. Water bowsers had been brought to the prisons, but the water quality was inadequate for drinking.
A recent visit by a delegation of parliamentarians to Chikurubi found that toilets had not been flushed for weeks, because there was no running water, and [that] pages torn from Bibles were being used as toilet paper. The unsanitary conditions have made diarrhoea and skin diseases a permanent feature of prison life.
In response to the rapidly deteriorating conditions in the prison system, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said [that] the government was working on formulating an open prison system, in which offenders would serve part of their jail terms at their homes to help decongest the prisons.
How far would you go to put food on the table?
Would you take your life in your hands - wading through crocodile-infested waters, and walking unprotected through land where leopards roam?
That is what Monica has just done, for the sake of her three-year-old daughter.
She has joined the exodus of Zimbabweans crossing illegally into South Africa - the so-called "border jumpers".
They travel in the dead of night, guided by traffickers. The going rate is 200 rand (£14 or $28).
We met Monica shortly after dawn, as she emerged from the bush about 6km (3.7 miles) inside South Africa.
She was on foot with four other women - their faces showing the strain.
Monica told us [that] they had been travelling for four days with traffickers who abandoned them when their money ran out.
"They called us baboons," she said. "They told us, [']if you have no money, we will leave you here and call the police to come and arrest you.[']
"We have nowhere to go right now. We have no money and the police are all over. We don't know what to do."
Ordeal
Monica was driven out of her homeland by poverty, hunger, and concern for her little girl.
"The situation is very bad," she said. "We will try by all means to get jobs. We can't go back. We are starving in Zimbabwe."
Mary, one of her travelling companions, is a mother of four. She also talked of starvation.
"We've got no jobs," she said. "We can't do anything in Zimbabwe. We are suffering."
After resting for a few moments the women picked up the few belongings [that] they were carrying, and began walking towards the highway.
With no money and no place to go, their ordeal may be just beginning.
A short distance away, a group of taxi drivers were waiting at a favourite rendezvous point - under a baobab tree.
They are part of a highly organised and lucrative trafficking network.
The taxi drivers have spotters with mobile phones, who warn if the police or army are near.
A ride to Johannesburg costs a fortune for a Zimbabwean - 1300 rand (£92 or $184).
Panic
No-one knows for sure how many border jumpers arrive every day, but the estimate from the taxi drivers is more than a thousand.
"Even pregnant women or women with a baby on their backs are jumping a 2-[meter]-high razor-wire fence," one driver said. "Some are carrying newborns. It's bad."
The taxis leave with their human cargo within three to five minutes.
"We phone the guy at the corner," he says. "If he says [that] the place is safe, we take everyone. If not, we offload them quickly."
For some, the journey involves jumping fences, or cutting holes in them to crawl underneath. But there are easier places to cross the border, if you know where to look.
We found an area protected by only a single fence. There is no need to cut a hole, because there is an unlocked gate.
Once through the gate, the Limpopo River is just ahead, and beyond it, Zimbabwe.
Risking everything
The Limpopo is low now, but border jumpers have drowned when the river is in flood.
Just downriver, another group was making their crossing, holding their valuables above their heads.
They arrived safely on dry land, but there was a reception committee of local thugs.
They often lie in wait to rob or rape the new arrivals, sometimes tipped off by the traffickers.
The border jumpers spotted them in the distance. There was panic as they rushed to squeeze back through the fence, and return to the river.
They got away this time, but the thieves are a constant threat.
Zimbabwe is haemorrhaging some of its brightest and best.
In Johannesburg these days, you find doctors, lawyers and head masters from Harare ready to work as cleaners.
Plenty of illegal migrants are arrested and sent home. So far this year, 57,600 have been deported to Zimbabwe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
But many attempt the crossing again and again, unable to survive in a country with 80% unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate - now 2,200%.
The price of corn, the staple food in Zimbabwe, has just risen by a staggering 680%. That may drive many more desperate men and women into the arms of the traffickers.
Along the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, a tragedy is unfolding - though its victims usually pass unseen.
They are women like Monica and Mary - mothers risking everything for a chance to feed their
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