Absence of psychiatrists blamed

A SERIOUS shortage of psychiatrists is affecting the justice delivery system in Mashonaland West Province, a regional magistrate has said.

Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital currently does not have a provision for psychiatric assistance to mentally challenged rape victim survivors.

The affected patients are often referred to Harare for the service.

Speaking at a Victim Friendly Unit stakeholder meeting in Chinhoyi recently, regional magistrate Mr Amos Mbobo said the shortage of psychiatrists was, however, not peculiar to the province, as this was a national challenge.

“We have many cases of mentally COTTON farmers in Mashonaland West Province are hopeful that they would get better yields after some of the cotton-growing areas received mid-season rains.

Government, through the Presidential Input Support Scheme, has been providing free cotton inputs to farmers to revive an industry that was on the verge of collapse.

Zimbabwe has potential to produce 600 000 tonnes of cotton per annum. challenged rape and violence survivors, who need psychiatric assistance.

“Unfortunately, the provincial hospital cannot offer assistance to our courts. We take mentally challenged rape survivors to Harare for further tests,” said Mr Mbombo.

The courts, he said, need to be diligent in dealing with delicate issues of rape.

“The whole country, we have eight psychiatrists, of which one of them is Russian. Cases of rape are serious matters and justice should always prevail.

“There is need to be diligent in dealing with such cases because we do not have any eyewitnesses. Cases of rape and murder are classified as crimes against humanity and they need maximum attention when investigating,” he said.

Mr Mbobo said there was also need to embrace new technology and incorporate the use of advanced forensic evidence in the courts.

“More resources are needed in our courts to improve the investigations while helping in extraction of evidence from the victims and perpetrators.

“There is need for us to embrace new technologies and improve investigation processes. In some countries, they use of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiling in the courts. If this is also considered in our courts, it can prove to be helpful,” he said.

Mr Mbobo called on all stakeholders’ participation in reporting rape cases to the police, while making sure that the perpetrators are brought to book.