Robert Mugabe has given a blanket pardon to thousands of prisoners. The pardon extends to all women who are not on death row or serving life sentences.Women who have been booked for murder but are serving shorter sentences will also be released. It also includes all male prisoners under 18, regardless of their crime.
Women in Zimbabwe prison
Prisoners who are advanced in age will also benefit from the amnesty because it also calls for the release of prisoners over 60 who have completed two-thirds of their sentence and prisoners who are terminally ill.
According to Zimbabwe’s superintendent of prisons, Priscilla Mthembo:
“We are appealing to the people of Zimbabwe to embrace togetherness and accept the inmates, giving them a second chance at life through supporting them in different endeavors to earn a better living,” Mthembo said. “Inmates should not take this pardon for granted. Let them go out there and exhibit the spirit of Ubuntu and respect the laws of the country.”
Wondering what ubuntu is? According to Wikipedia, it is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally “human-ness”, and is often translated as “humanity towards others”, but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”. In Southern Africa, it has come to be used as a term for a kind of humanist philosophy.
This general amnesty for prisoners came about because Zimbabwe can no longer pay for the prisons. This includes payment for the prison warders, feeding the prisoners, etc.
Local newspapers claim that lots of prisoners would be released in Zimbabwe due to the fact that the prisons were overcrowded.
The prison system presently has the capacity for 17,000 and currently houses almost 20,000.