Source: Long serving inmate rises to ‘prison headmaster’ | The Sunday News
Moses Moyo Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
A 40-year-old man currently serving a 49-year prison sentence at Khami Maximum Prison has shared his experiences of living almost half his life behind bars, enduring pain and regret, while ultimately rising to the position of “headmaster of Khami High School”.
Moses Moyo has spent 18 years incarcerated after being convicted on 10 counts of robbery, unlawful entry, and theft. Originally sentenced to 59 years, his sentence was reduced by 10 years following a court decision.
In a wide-ranging interview with Sunday News, Moyo shared how, at the age of 19, he succumbed to peer pressure from friends, leading him down a path of crime despite being the son of a police officer.
“I used to stay at Hillcrest suburb in Bulawayo. I was arrested for 10 counts of unlawful entry, theft and robbery. I committed these offences and I regret doing these crimes. I committed these offences while I was still young with only three years having completed my Ordinary Level.
“I did this through peer pressure, committing these offences not because I wanted money, or I came from a poor background. My parents were catering for everything that I needed. It was just mere mischief,” said Moyo.
Moyo who is set to be released in 2041 after the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services remitted a third of his sentence, said he was devastated after receiving the sentence and did not see himself serving the 18 years he has served now.
“Through God’s grace and with the guidance and counselling of the rehabilitation officers, I started pursuing education. I did my Advanced Level here, passed and started teaching fellow inmates and now I am even teaching external students,” said Moyo.
“Currently I am the headmaster for both the internal and external school. Now looking at the fact that I have spent 18 years in prison and in retrospection that I was arrested at the age of 22 and I am now 40 years old, it means I lived half of my life in prison just because of robberies,” said Moyo.
He said when he is now doing a cost-benefit analysis, he realises that he has wasted his life and has not only inflicted pain on himself alone.
“My mother developed chronic illnesses due to the pain I put her through, my relatives are traumatised, and this means I have affected a lot of people including my victims whom I sincerely apologise to.
“At the time I committed these offences, little did I know that I was doing something that is wrong, now I realise that what I did is wrong. That as it may, I plead with the Government to remember me, as all the Presidential amnesties that have come through in the past 18 years, I could not benefit in any category because of the fraction that is required,” said Moyo.
He said most of the amnesties would see those that would have saved at least one third of their sentences benefiting through various remissions.
Having served 18 years and one third of his sentence being 16 years, Moyo said it is only now that he can benefit from such an amnesty if it comes.– @nyeve14
“I am hopeful that one day, the Presidential amnesty will come with the provision of one third. I want to encourage people outside prison not to take the same path I took, and that crime does not pay. You might be successful on one or two occasions, but you will live to regret for the rest of your life. It is better safe than sorry,” said Moyo.
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