News / Local
Prison guards fired for smuggling mobile phones, mbanje to inmates for cash
22 Dec 2013 at 04:38hrs | Views
THREE Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) officers have been dismissed from duty while seven others are being tried for smuggling cannabis and mobile phones to inmates in exchange for cash, the Sunday News reported.
In a case that has rattled the prison system, the syndicate was exposed after internal police became suspicious of the personal relations that had developed between the officers and inmates.
It is understood the officers were stationed at Chikurubi Maximum Security and Harare Central Remand prisons where the involved inmates would use the cellular phones to communicate with relatives and friends.
The relatives would then pay the officers outside the holding complexes. ZPCS national spokesperson Superintendent Elizabeth Banda told our Harare Bureau last week that the cases emerged during the course of the year. She said investigations were also being carried out at other prisons countrywide.
She declined to divulge the names of the officers for "security and operational reasons", but pointed out that Section 3 of the Prisons (Staff) (Discipline) Regulations prohibits smuggling goods into prison.
"Three officers have been dismissed from the service since the beginning of the year while seven other cases are still being tried. Their offences attract dismissal from the ZPCS while the inmates will be charged for committing a prison offence, resulting in loss of remission.
"The prohibited articles they brought into prisons included cellular phones, which they gave the inmates to unofficially communicate with their relatives. Others also smuggled dagga into the prisons.
"Members are periodically reminded to desist from trafficking and the sentences meted out are deterrent enough to would-be offenders. Formal disciplinary proceedings are carried out. If one is found guilty, an appropriate sentence is meted out. In most cases, offenders are discharged from the service."
In a case that has rattled the prison system, the syndicate was exposed after internal police became suspicious of the personal relations that had developed between the officers and inmates.
It is understood the officers were stationed at Chikurubi Maximum Security and Harare Central Remand prisons where the involved inmates would use the cellular phones to communicate with relatives and friends.
The relatives would then pay the officers outside the holding complexes. ZPCS national spokesperson Superintendent Elizabeth Banda told our Harare Bureau last week that the cases emerged during the course of the year. She said investigations were also being carried out at other prisons countrywide.
"Three officers have been dismissed from the service since the beginning of the year while seven other cases are still being tried. Their offences attract dismissal from the ZPCS while the inmates will be charged for committing a prison offence, resulting in loss of remission.
"The prohibited articles they brought into prisons included cellular phones, which they gave the inmates to unofficially communicate with their relatives. Others also smuggled dagga into the prisons.
"Members are periodically reminded to desist from trafficking and the sentences meted out are deterrent enough to would-be offenders. Formal disciplinary proceedings are carried out. If one is found guilty, an appropriate sentence is meted out. In most cases, offenders are discharged from the service."
Source - Sunday News
