30 May 2019

Government will consider to help Boro Prison farm with resources and capacitate officers to realise optimum produce.

This was said by the Minister for Defence, Justice and Security Mr Shaw Kgathi on Monday when he visited Boro Prison.

He encouraged Boro Prison inmates to fully participate in the farm to gain skills that they could use when they complete their terms.

He observed that it was government’s plan to ensure inmates were empowered with survival skills like their counterparts outside prison and encouraged the 108 inmates who are mainly still in their youth to abide by prison rules and regulation so they complete their terms on a clean slate.

Mr Kgathi also urged the inmates to refrain from repeating criminal offences that would send them back to prison once they were released.

Answering some questions from the inmates, he said it was not possible to allow inmates with certain skills to be hired by the outside world since prison sentence was a way of denying them some rights.

The Boro Prison base commander Senior Superintendent, Gabriel Magole in his briefing said only 29 out of 405.7 hectares farmland of the Boro Prison farm was utilised in farming.

Senior Supt Magole said elephants were a challenge to the farm as 16.2 hectares of maize and black-eyed peas that were planted this season were destroyed by elephants. He noted that 14 inmates were engaged in crop production while 12 were engaged in horticulture.

Further, he said Boro Prison needed renovation since the building structures were old, and said the prison base also had challenges of water shortage, poor road condition and that the inmates relied on public health facilities since the prison had no nurse.

Minister Kgathi promised to take up some of their challenges.

He also said they should consider drilling a borehole for water supply instead of relying on water bowsing and install solar lights and a durable fence to deter elephants from destroying the crops.

Mr Kgathi also commended the prison staff for commitment despite poor conditions of service in the past years.
He noted that they did a crucial job of rehabilitating inmates. ENDS