HARARE —
First Lady Grace Mugabe has offered to look after some of the children who are staying with their incarcerated mothers in various prisons around the country.
Deputy Justice Minister Fortune Chasi told the Senate human rights committee Wednesday the first lady is offering to look after the children at her Mazowe orphanage.
Most of these children are born behind bars. Chasi was giving oral evidence on the state of justice delivery in Zimbabwe to the parliamentary committee.
He, however, did not say how many children the first lady was willing to take from the prisons but said the ministry is concerned with the minors’ continued stay in prison with their mothers.
Chasi said more worrying was the fact that there was no legal provision for the prisons to look after the minors, adding the government is in process of setting-up a female open prison, which has facilities to cater for children in Marondera.
There were more than 70 minors in Zimbabwe’s 42 prisons before President Robert Mugabe’s recent pardon which saw more than 2,000 prisoners, mostly women, being released.
Studio 7 was unable to get comment from the Zimbabwe Prison Service on how many minors remain in the country’s prisons following the pardon.
Deputy Justice Minister Fortune Chasi told the Senate human rights committee Wednesday the first lady is offering to look after the children at her Mazowe orphanage.
Most of these children are born behind bars. Chasi was giving oral evidence on the state of justice delivery in Zimbabwe to the parliamentary committee.
He, however, did not say how many children the first lady was willing to take from the prisons but said the ministry is concerned with the minors’ continued stay in prison with their mothers.
Chasi said more worrying was the fact that there was no legal provision for the prisons to look after the minors, adding the government is in process of setting-up a female open prison, which has facilities to cater for children in Marondera.
There were more than 70 minors in Zimbabwe’s 42 prisons before President Robert Mugabe’s recent pardon which saw more than 2,000 prisoners, mostly women, being released.
Studio 7 was unable to get comment from the Zimbabwe Prison Service on how many minors remain in the country’s prisons following the pardon.