Prison boss sidelined over deadly riot

Zimbabwe’s Prison Services Commissioner General Paradzai Zimondi has demoted the head of the Chikurubi Maximum Prison following a deadly riot in March. New Zimbabwe says Superintendent David Marange had been sidelined over the incident which resulted in five inmates being shot dead while protesting over poor food and inhuman treatment by prison officials. Armed police had to be summoned to quell the riot. Aggreys Machingauta, Deputy Commissioner-General for Prisons, told a parliamentary committee that the foiled jail break was plotted outside the prison with the aim of embarrassing President Robert Mugabe who was in Japan attending a UN meeting. He said the country's prisons were overcrowded: ‘We have more than 20 000 inmates countrywide and our carrying capacity is 17 000.’