PAIN was scribbled all over his face as he narrated his ordeal in prison, which lasted for 10 years, served for a crime that he did not commit.
MDC Alliance activist Tungamirai Madzokere finally gathered
courage and recounted how his former wife, whom he loved dearly, deserted him
while he was incarcerated at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare after
believing the narrative that he was a cop killer as claimed by the State.
In 2011, Madzokere and Last Maengahama were arrested in
Glen View, Harare and charged with killing a police officer, Inspector Petros
Mutedza. After spending 10 years in jail, the Supreme Court last week quashed
the sentence and set them free.
“I don’t believe in vengeance, I forgive the State and
those who have worked with it to keep me in jail for a crime I did not commit.
I walked into prison a married man, but walked out a bachelor who is in pain. I
will sue them so that this (wrongful incarceration) ends with me,” Madzokere
said.
The interview was difficult as he appeared to be
absent-minded at times or in deep thought. Several times, he struggled to
control his emotions.
Apart from having been ditched by his wife, he said he
found his house emptied of all furnishing, his children were all gone and there
was no one to welcome him.
“I have been struggling to tell anyone — even my friends
don’t know about my problems. My relatives never disclosed this to me while I
was in prison because they feared for my health. As you can see, I am not
feeling well,” he said.
Well-wishers have begun extending donations to the pair to
enable them to start their lives anew, but Madzokere said it was difficult as
one could not easily replace one’s lost family.
Maengahama, who shared prison cells with Madzokere said
their stay at the high security prison was difficult as they were treated like
condemned prisoners on death row.
However, he said he remained hopeful and was comforted by
prisoners on death row who told him to be strong.
He told NewsDay harrowing stories of how he watched some of
fellow inmates die, while others lost their minds due to the harsh conditions
in prisons.
“It was a painful experience, especially to hear that the
person you were talking to has died, or has been taken to hospital because they
just lost their mind. It was traumatising. As a man of faith, I was the one who
would preside over the funerals most of the time. Later, this weighed heavily
on me,” he said.
“The deaths were due to the poor health system, poor diet
and harsh conditions which any person can never adapt to.
“When you enter the prison, you are confronted by shock and
disbelief. You have to move out of that shock to acceptance because if you
don’t, you will die or lose your mind,” Maengahama said.
Since the two were political prisoners, they said they were
kept in very harsh conditions. While they were studying while in prison, they
said authorities at some point tried to censor their academic work.
Other difficulties they encountered included having their learning material withheld by Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) guards who would take months to check it under the guise that they were looking for offensive stuff.
“You are doing a degree yet your books are being withheld by a Form Two prison guard who comes and orders you to remove some sections of your assignment. This is academic work that they wanted to censor. They did it to Madzokere once and he refused to change his assignment,” Maengahama said.
They said they lived in overcrowded conditions in jail,
where more than 50 inmates were crammed in a small cell. They said it was
miraculous that they maintained sanity in such conditions for 10 years. “My
sleeping space was 30cm by 30cm. I could not turn to the other side, or try to
be comfortable while sleeping. This was my life for the 10 years I spent in
prison,” Maengahama said.
Madzokere added that food, clothing and blankets were all
unfit for human beings.
“Jail is a place designed to make you a bitter and
worse-off person. They fail to provide food or clothing. In prison, there is no
balanced diet, you are given boiled cabbage and sadza almost everyday, followed
by boiled beans. They also make sure
they strip you of your dignity, it’s a sad state o f affairs,” Madzokere said.
The two were denied visitors, including visits by late MDC-T
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his successor Nelson Chamisa.
“We were not treated like ordinary prisoners; security was
tight and we lived under unhealthy conditions worse than those of dogs. Even as
we attended court, we were kept in cells with prisoners on the death row, our
visitors were barred from seeing us, it was horror and pain,” Madzokere said.
They said during the first days of their imprisonment they
did count the days and hours as they went by. But they later stopped doing so
as hope faded. They said only prayer kept them alive.
“I was kept alive and sane by turning to God. I had the
opportunity to reflect on my life during my time, going back to Grade One, and
looking at what I did well and what I could have done better. I came out of
prison a better man,” said Maengahama while appearing to be preoccupied.
He said many had come out worse because of the harsh
conditions they were subjected to.
“When you walk into prison, the first loss is normally your wife, many leave their husbands and this drives many crazy. And when you walk out, society has already condemned you, all support structures are gone. You find yourself wanting to go back, because in prison there is love among inmates, we used to stand together,” Maengahama said.
After their release, society, however, has embraced them
and views them as heroes. A welcome bash was even held in their honour.
MDC Alliance vice-chairman Job Sikhala and journalist
Hopewell Chin’ono have become major pillars of support for them after coming
out of prison.
They have teamed up with diasporans to set up a GoFundMe
account with the aim of raising US$50 000 to give the two a fresh start in
life.
Their lives will never be the same again considering what
they went through in the past 10 years. They said it could never be undone, but
they are still hopeful and determined to change their future and that of all
Zimbabweans.
Indeed, theirs was a tale of horror, which has ended in
tears of joy. Newsday
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