From Reuters UK

At least 100 Zimbabwean prisoners have died of hunger and disease this year because the cash-strapped government can only afford one meal a day for inmates.

Prison farms were not getting enough seed and fertiliser from the government to produce sufficient food to feed inmates, the NewsDay newspaper quoted Deputy Commissioner for Prisons Aggrey Machingauta as telling a parliamentary committee.
“Prisoners are dying because of hunger and some (HIV) related diseases,” he said.

“The problem of hunger is compounded by the fact that we can only afford to give prisoners one meal instead of three square meals per day.”

He also said that 100 prisoners have died this year, double the number from last year. The privately owned newspaper also quoted the Chief Secretary of the Justice Ministry, Virginia Mabhiza, as telling the committee Zimbabwe’s 46 prisons required $1 million a month to run properly.

She did not say how much funding the prison system was receiving. Machingauta and Mabhiza were not immediately available for comment. Zimbabwe is struggling to right its economy after a decade-long economic crisis to 2009, which critics blame on mismanagement by veteran President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.

Written by Cris Chinaka | Read more at Reuters UK