31 Mar 2025

Government is dedicated to speed up the Botswana Prison Services into a more self-reliant entity that can successfully rehabilitate prisoners and assimilate them into the community.

Speaking during a visit to Molepolole Prison recently, the Assistant Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mr Augustine Nyatanga urged officers to make sure that dysfunctional and morally impaired inmates  were rehabilitated. He said prisoners as part of the society deserved to be reformed and allowed back into the society. 

Mr Nyatanga said  one of the mandates of government was  to ensure respect and promotion of human rights hence  prison should emphasise on good conduct of inmates

 He said farms owned by prisons should be fully utilised to produce good yields, pointing that gone were the days where prisons relied on government accounts for food while they had farms with the ability to feed inmates if well managed.  

He highlighted that one of the main challenges that haunted prisons was the issue of escapees, but gave credit to Molepolole Prisons for holding a record of no escapees for a couple of years. He described the Molepolole Prison as a function of highly motivated officers that served with commitment.

Furthermore, Mr Nyatanga said the new shape of prisons entailed the changing of name to be Correctional Services, thus doing away with the word prisons which seemed to be more destructive to the repute of convicts. 

He said this name changing procedure should effect by July this year. Mr Nyatanga said the current prisons nationwide were obsolete hence a need for modern prisons designed to uphold the reputation of inmates. 

He said his ministry was still looking into fostering public-private partnerships, property companies partnering government in a build-and-rent deals to address the issue of insufficient accommodation for prisons officers.

Furthermore, Mr Nyatanga said government was striving to allow prisons officers to unionise so as to adhere to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), adding that unions granted officers a platform to speak out. 

However, Sergeant Smith Ratshukudu of Molepolole Prison decried lack of promotion as well as delayed transfers. 

The  Commissioner of Prisons, Mr Anthony Mokento said in most cases the prolonged promotion period was due to lack of vacancies. He said one of the reasons for  delayed transfers was that some officers were not willing to go to the countryside.  

Mr Nyatanga closed the day by visiting the 400 hectares farm, which has paddocks for vegetable and grain sections, dog site, sheep, goat and cattle. ENDS