Thabiso Nyathi, Bhekinkosi Nkomo and Siyanai Muchechesi were arrested
two weeks ago following the screening of the TV documentary Hell Hole'
in South Africa. The team behind the film had provided sympathetic
prison warders with secret cameras to film the conditions in Khami,
Beitbridge and Harare Remand prisons. The footage showed skeletal
prisoners dressed in rags and dying of malnutrition and disease in
filthy institutions without food, medication or even the most basic
sanitation.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa at the time slammed the South
African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for screening the film that he
said had been fabricated'. Within hours of Chinamasa's tirade against
the SABC, the three prison officials were taken into custody. They were
charged with contravening sections of the Official Secrets Act', which
has previously only served to protect the many rights violations of the
ZANU PF government.
The trio have since been acquitted of the charges and released from
prison, but the allegations that they helped the SABC gather the
sensitive footage used in the film means they have all been dismissed
from the prison service. Two of the group, Nkomo and Muchechesi, have
since had new unrelated charges levelled against them, but are out on
bail facing court hearings. Nkomo is facing charges of allegedly
possessing counterfeit money and pornographic material, while
Muchechesi is facing smuggling charges. The last prison warder, Nyathi,
has not faced any new charges and remains a free man, although
unemployed.
Meanwhile, there are fears that the horror situation exposed in the
SABC film will worsen, because of a possible cholera explosion in the
prisons. According to the World Health Organisation the disease, which
has relaxed its grip on the rest of the country, is now spreading like
wildfire in Kadoma prison, where filthy conditions have seen the
cholera bacteria thrive. This outbreak has sparked concerns that
prisons will be the next epicentre of a fresh epidemic. At the same
time, at least twenty prisoners have been released by Bulawayo courts
on medical grounds. The majority of those released were suffering from
pellagra (a malnutrition related disease), but these individuals are
just a tiny handful of the large number of suffering prisoners across
Zimbabwe.
SWRadio Africa
Post published in: Politics