Correctional facilities in deplorable state – Tonga

Mon, 22 May 2017 13:26:29 +0000

By JUSTINA MULENGA

GOVERNMENT should renovate and maintain all prisons in Zambia to decongest them as prisoners are human beings with the right to good shelter, says 3rd Liberation Movement President, Enoch Tonga.

Mr Tonga said all prisons in Zambia were in deplorable states.

Speaking to the Daily Nation in an interview yesterday, Mr Tonga said the judicial system in Zambia was not doing much and their relevance was strongly diminishing.

He said there were so many law breakers due to unemployment and many of these unemployed resorted to criminal activities to earn a living.

“It is common among most unemployed youths to resort to criminal activities due to joblessness and these end up in prison,” he said.

Mr Tonga said government needed to prioritise creating more employment opportunities and offering entrepreneurial skills to the youths.

He said youths take up almost 90 percent of the country’s population and many were unemployed.

He said empowering youths with employment and entrepreneurial skills would prevent them from engaging in criminal activities that could land them in prison.

“If anyone has a job he or she concentrates on, I don’t see a reason for that particular person to involve him or herself in criminal activities such as stealing,” he said.

Mr Tonga also said the state of all prisons in Zambia do not suit human habitation.

He said Government should not only wait for well-wishers that donate items like uniforms, food and equipment to the prisons but take action to change their state by including them in development projects.

He said the judicial system in Zambia was very costly which one of the causes for congestion in prisons was because most of the law breakers were held up as remands.

He said there was also so much corruption in the judiciary especially among influential people such as politicians.

Mr Tonga further said it was saddening that some accused persons could not access a lawyer due to the high charges they offer for which most ended up rotting in prisons as remands.

“Lawyers in Zambia are very costly and most people can’t afford unless those earning more money,” he said.

Mr Tonga said not even the prerogative of mercy would help decongest the prisons because only a few were pardoned among thousands.

He said there was too much corruption especially among the judiciary with politicians who committed crimes and ended up being scot free.

He said it was not only the guilt that were kept in prison but even innocent people accused of crimes they never committed suffered because of not having anyone to speak for them.

Mr Tonga urged Government to put up policies that would help the less privileged access a lawyer for free to speed up cases.