About 400 Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) officers undergoing different specialist training at Ntabazinduna in Matabeleland North province reportedly staged a protest on Monday over poor quality of food.
Sources privy to the development said the situation got out
of hand when the officers were served with a poorly-prepared meal for dinner.
What irked them most was that they were denied the right to
buy own food, with authorities citing COVID-19 restrictions.
“There is no food here. The little that we get is poorly
cooked, yet they don’t allow us to go out of the schoolyard to buy
supplementary food. Their canteen is empty,” one of the prison guards, who
requested anonymity, said.
Tension also rose when the trainees were forced to buy a
simple T-shirt for $1 600 and a tracksuit for $4 500.
Insiders said a meeting held on Monday afternoon failed to
resolve the uniform issue as the trainees insisted that they didn’t have enough
money to buy training uniforms because they were poorly paid.
“We don’t have money to buy our training uniforms. The
institution should provide us with uniforms. Besides, sportswear is a project
run by senior officers’ spouses in the region,” on trainee charged.
The training is for three months and there are three training
categories that include police training and security drawn from serving
members.
Contacted for comment, acting Commandant at Ntabazinduna
Prisons Training School Chief Superintendent Priscilla Mthembo denied that
there were protests at the depot.
“As a training school for ZPCS, our trainees, correctional
officers will never participate in any demonstration of any nature,” Mthembo
said. “We offer a two-way communication channel between management of the
school and trainees and we have never had any complaints pertaining to food or
tracksuits.
“Our trainees and officers at large are very much aware of
the proper channels to air their grievances. So the allegations of students
demonstrating or complaints on food or students being forced to buy expensive
tracksuits are not true.
“The school management will always be available to assist
trainees in various areas of need as they undergo these important training
programmes.” Newsday
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