Work starts on Kaukonde prison-(08-02-07

ingly getting involved in succession manouevres in the ruling party as one of the chief funders for the Mujuru faction – has already started constructing a prison at his home in Nyamande Village of Mudzi.
Bewildered villagers said the governor had announced late last year that as part of bringing development to the people, he would construct the prison.
“He made the announcement at one of the meetings but most of us thought it was a joke,” said villager Givemore Jeche.
“However, it didn’t take long before work commenced and it became real that the prison was indeed on the way. We are all shocked by him deciding to spend a lot of money on such a project when people are suffering from a lack of basic commodities such as food.”
Kaukonde confirmed the prison project when contacted for comment but declined to divulge more details regarding the funding and whether it was a government or personal initiative.
An official at the Mudzi District Office, who declined to reveal her identity, told this reporter by telephone that they were aware of the prison project but said it was a personal venture of Kaukonde’s.
Another villager was also very sceptical about Kaukonde’s intentions and raised fears for a sinister plot.
“He must be planning to have an easy way of getting free labour for his farm. When he started talking about the prison project last year he would repeatedly complain about many thieves he said were stealing his riches and said they needed to be brought to book,” he said.
Kaukonde took over a commercial farm about 20 kilometres outside Harare on the Nyamapanda highway during the government sponsored land grab. Pajero RaRubi Farm specializes in maize and soya bean production. He also runs a bus company as well as chain of supermarkets, in addition to holding shares in a number of blue chip companies such as Dahmer, the bus assembling company.
The prison will have a ground floor and an underground dungeon and is said to have the capacity to hold up to 1000 people.