Zimbabwe prison service plans to double workforce

via Zimbabwe prison service plans to double workforce – official | The Source June 3, 2014

The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS) says it will more than double its workforce to 22,000 in what would be the biggest recruitment drive of recent years at a time when the government is struggling to pay its workers.

Zimbabwe’s prison population was around 15,000 against carrying capacity of 17,000, according to official 2013 data, although rights groups put the figure at about 23,000. A presidential pardon freed 2,000 inmates in February this year.

The Zimbabwe Prison Services was renamed to incorporate the correctional element in August last year in line with the new constitution, with a brief to rehabilitate inmates as productive citizens upon their release.

Chief Superintendent Zonai Cleopas Nyatsanza, responsible for administration in Manicaland, said the new remit means that ZPCS will have to recruit to perform to required standards.

ZPCS has 10,000 employees, but will bump that number to 22,000 by recruiting ‘gradually,’ Nyatsanza said, adding to the state’s current workforce of 235,000 employees.

“Our workforce is expected to double from the current staff we have. We are looking to have a total force of about 22,000,” he told The Source.

Nyatsanza said under its new organisational structure, ZPCS will have to set up provincial command structures, which require more staff.

The state is already the largest employer as Zimbabwean companies, who are grappling with cash shortages, regular power cuts, high cost of borrowings and demand for higher wages are either downsizing or closing shop.

In 2012, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said only 11 percent of Zimbabweans were employed in the formal sector, but that figure is likely to be lower after hundreds of companies closed shop since then due to worsening economic fundamentals.

Treasury is already struggling to pay its workers and has deferred pay dates twice this year.