MILLICENT HUNGWE
MASVINGO-When Calvin Muvheyi tracked his way back home from a ‘hunting’ expedition in South Africa to pay lobola for his long time sweetheart, little did he know that horror was waiting for him in his motherland.
As a keen activist and journalist, naturally, Muvheyi wanted to catch up with the happenings in his home town and one of the hot stories doing rounds then was the court appearance of City of Masvingo Town Clerk, Eng Edward Mukaratirwa on corruption charges.
Muvheyi’s sojourn back in Zimbabwe unfortunately coincided with the much publicised 44th SADC summit and little did he know that he was being tracked as one of the suspected ring leaders of the ‘demonstrations’ set to hit the country while we host visitors from the whole continent.
The authorities left nothing to chance as they went all the way to arrest anyone who was suspected of ‘thinking’ of demonstrating during the summit which resulted in Zimbabwe assuming the rotational chairmanship of SADC.
Muvheyi was tracked all the way from Beitbridge border to his home in Mucheke and when he decided to attend the Mukaratirwa case at Masvingo Magistrate Court, it presented an opportunity for the authorities to take their man in and they did not waste time as they swooped on him when he was leaving the court building.
The rest is history.
What is most painful for the young activist is the conditions that he encountered at the remand prison in Masvingo during the 18 days that he was ‘kept’ there to prevent him from ‘demonstrating’ during the SADC summit.
Muvheyi, a former student leader, was detained on August 19 and held in remand for 18 days before being released on US$100 bail on August 27 at the High Court where he was represented by prominent human rights lawyer and former City of Masvingo Mayor, Collen Maboke.
According to Muvheyi, his ordeal began when he was approached by four CID officers, including one Detective Moyo, at the Magistrates Court.
“Before they came to court they looked for my house number at Mike Taderera’s residents, but he denied knowing where I stayed,” Muvheyi said.
“When I arrived at the remand prison, the authorities wanted to assault me, but I questioned the legality of such actions as I told them that it’s a violation of my rights,” he added.
During his time in the remand prison, Muvheyi witnessed and experienced firsthand the dire conditions, including overcrowding, lack of security, and inadequate access to basic necessities like water and healthcare for those awaiting trial.
“I witnessed mentally unstable individuals who were often left unattended, to the extent of eating bath soaps and forced to fend for themselves,” Muvheyi said.
“Sick inmates were neglected, leading to inhumane conditions of messing themselves, with the mentally challenged inmates cleaning up the mess in exchange for ‘gavhunga’ (a local term for a small amount of money),” he explained.
Muvheyi stated that the Masvingo remand prison has poor ablution facilities as the sewer system is always dysfunctional and blocked.
He also chronicled how one Egyptian national who has been languishing in remand prison for four months had to fork out his own $450 to facilitate his move to Harare after being declared persona nan grata by the courts, alongside three Burundian inmates because the state did not have fuel and vehicles to take them to the airport enroute to their respective countries.
The former student leader added that drugs and contraband were circulating freely among inmates, due to poor security and laxity.
In response to Muvheyi’s allegations, ZPCS Masvingo Province spokesperson Stanslous Sanike denied the claims, stating that the former prisoner intended to tarnish the organization’s image.
“We have two boreholes, one of which was drilled with the assistance of Masvingo Provincial Affairs, Ezra Chadzamira, then how can we have water challenges in such a case?” queried Sanike.
However, Muvheyi’s account paints a bleak picture of a system in disarray, where mentally challenged inmates are left unattended, and basic necessities are lacking.
He also said it takes ages for the accused who are deemed to be mentally unstable to be examined by qualified doctors to ascertain their conditions for them to stand trial or not as the procedures are mostly done in Harare or Bulawayo.
“One of the sick guys I was sharing a room with would poo on himself and spend 2 days without being attended to only for those who are believed to be mentally unstable to be ordered to clean him.
“The situation at the remand prison is shocking to say the least, there is need for a complete overhaul of the system as some people end up going mad due to the conditions they are subjected to or risk becoming hard core criminals,” said the activist with a long history of being at the forefront of protests at Great Zimbabwe University where he was a student leader.
Muvheyi’s story calls for the government to urgently intervene and address the systemic issues perpetuating human suffering behind bars, said Abednigo Sithole a former inmate.
“There is need for a holistic approach to the whole issue of ill-treatment, lack of food, human rights abuse and underfunding at all our prisons in the country not only Masvingo.
“The situation at Masvingo reflects what is prevailing in the whole country, there is serious under funding by the government for all our prisons, no blankets, no clothing, overcrowding and a whole lot of issues hence the need to put our heads together and try to solve this together.
“The churches, human rights activists, the government, non governmental organisations, the media and all the stakeholders must pull in one direction so that we come up with a solution, it’s not time to throw stones and accusations at each other because the issues boils down to the economy which is poorly performing,” said Sithole.