Published: 25 April 2018

The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) is calling on local and foreign companies to come forward for a public-private partnership, whose aim will be targeted at enabling the institution to meet dietary needs for inmates.

The call was made by the Commissioner General of the ZPCS, Retired Major General Paradzai Zimondi at the commissioning of a kapenta fishing rig in Binga, this afternoon.

The ZPCS is struggling to meet dietary needs for inmates due to economic challenges which have also seen most government institutions operating on a tight budget.

Retired Major General Zimondi feels the institution cannot subject inmates to further punishment by denying them food, hence the call for partnerships to embark on projects such as fishing kapenta which has become a money making venture that also meets dietary needs for prison inmates in Matabeleland North Province.

"We are now open for public private partnerships. ZPCS is now open for business, if we are to take after His Excellency, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa. Come let us do business together. We have an obligation to meet dietary needs of our inmates but we cannot do it on our own," said the Commissioner General.

Matabeleland North Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Ambassador Cain Mathema said there is a need for a paradigm shift which will see government institutions become innovative instead of waiting for allocations from Treasury which are usually late and inadequate.

"Let me take this opportunity to urge all government institutions to become innovative and come up with income generating projects. We have a duty to see to it that ZPCS becomes a business entity and generate its own income," he said.

The kapenta fishing rig was purchased in December and began operating after the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services had been awarded a fishing licence by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate.

In addition to meeting, the project has so far been generating $1 980 per month through the sale of kapenta
- zbc