Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa
Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison is the right place for corrupt local authorities’ officials who flout good corporate governance practices and compromise the quality of service delivery in violation of the residents’ Constitutional rights, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday.
VP Mnangagwa said government was closely monitoring local government structures to weed out corruption and to ensure they prioritised service delivery to afford the residents access to clean and safe water among other constitutional rights.
Speaking at the International Human Rights Day commemorations in Chitungwiza, VP Mnangagwa said corruption in the local authorities was negatively impacting on the quality of service delivery.
To that end, VP Mnangagwa said corrupt officials risked being removed from society.
“We must also note that the capacity of infrastructure hasn’t been expanded to cater for the increased population particularly in urban areas resulting in current challenges being experienced in the delivery of services such as provision of adequate water and sanitation.
“In this regard, government continues to monitor local government structures to enforce good governance practices, weed out corruption and streamline budgets to prioritise service delivery.
“Corruption!! Corruption!! Corruption!! Down with corruption.
“If you behave corruptly, you will be removed from the others. “Chikurubi Prison, which falls under my portifolio, is the right place for corrupt people,” he said.
VP Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had made great strides in upholding human rights and success stories have been recorded in that regard.
“As government, we’ve made significant progress to ensure that Zimbabweans enjoy their human rights and freedoms.
“It’s important to note that the government of Zimbabwe has managed to operationalise the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to be the human rights watchdog and advisor to government on all issues relating to human rights in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Zimbabwe, according to VP Mnangagwa, had succeeded in affording its people the right to education.
“As we’re all aware, Zimbabwe has made enduring strides in fulfilling the right to education with a high literacy rate of 92 percent.
“For three consecutive years, Zimbabwe was ranked as having the highest literacy rate in Africa and the only country at some point to have a rating of over 90 percent,” he said.
VP Mnangagwa said no Zimbabwean should be denied access to education.
The new Constitution, VP Mnangagwa said, prohibited torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment.
“It shouldn’t be forgotten that the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for an absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
“The effect of this, inter alia, is the removal of corporal punishment as a sentence or form of punishment,” he said.
He added that the new supreme law had partly tempered with death penalty and that lobbying for its total abolishment should continue.
“We partially abolished death penalty in Zimbabwe. No woman should be sentenced to death and people over 70 years can’t he hanged.
“For the past 10 years, no one has been executed in Zimbabwe for various reasons and that is a milestone towards protection of the right to life, moving towards eventual abolition of the death penalty in the Zimbabwean statutes.
“The lobby for the total abolition of death penalty must continue,” said VP Mnangagwa.