The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Saturday, June 20, 1992 — The Government plans to build a more modern prison complex and acquire a prison farm in the Plumtree district, the Minister for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Emmerson Mnagangwa said yesterday.

Officially opening the $2,5 million Plumtree magistrate’s courts complex, Cde Mnangagwa said the present prison at Plumtree, built in 1919, was very old and was designed to hold only 100 inmates.

“With the increase in the number of cases coming before the courts in the town, the prison has proved to be completely inadequate sand has resulted in prisoners being constantly transferred to bigger prisobns in Bulawayo”, he said.

Cde Mnangagwa said the completion of the complex was a milestone in the implementation of the Government’s policy of bringing justice to the people and also improving the standards of justice in the legal system.

He said before independence, the populace experienced a lot of inconveniences because courts were not readily accessible to the masses and in those cases where they were, they were presided over by people who had little or no knowledge about the people coming before them.

“With the construction of such modern courts and in some cases the extension of existing facilities, it will now be possible for the masses to have easy access to the courts and for justice to be dispensed fairly and impartially to all citizens of the country”, he said.