PG warns pre-trial detention is choking Zimbabwe’s prisons

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s prisons are holding nearly 10,000 inmates beyond their designed capacity, prompting Prosecutor General Loice Matanda-Moyo to issue a sweeping directive urging prosecutors to aggressively pursue bail, fines and community service instead of custodial sentences.

In an internal memo dated January 7, 2026, seen by ZimLive, Matanda-Moyo revealed that the country’s prison population stands at 27,683 inmates against an official holding capacity of 17,800, leaving facilities overcrowded by 9,883 prisoners.

“This situation is undesirable,” Matanda-Moyo said, ordering all public prosecutors to factor overcrowding into bail proceedings and sentencing submissions. “Only in deserving cases should prosecutors advocate for custodial sentences.”

The memo, addressed to prosecutors nationwide, lays bare the scale of congestion within correctional facilities and places particular emphasis on the high number of detainees who have not been convicted.

Of the total prison population, 5,970 are unconvicted accused persons, a reality the Prosecutor General said flies in the face of constitutional protections.

“Our law scoffs at pre-trial incarceration,” Matanda-Moyo said. “An accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Generally, it is undesirable for an unconvicted person to be denied his or her liberty except in exceptional circumstances.”

She reminded prosecutors that detention before trial is not automatic, stressing that the state carries the burden of justifying continued incarceration.

“In terms of the law, an accused is entitled to bail unless the court finds that it is in the interest of justice that accused be detained in custody pending trial,” she said. “A prosecutor cannot simply without any justification submit for detention of an accused person in custody.”

The directive orders prosecutors to urgently revisit bail conditions, particularly where accused persons remain behind bars because they cannot afford monetary bail.

“If it is clear and apparent that accused do not afford such sums, there must be alternative conditions to bail in lieu of monetary payments,” Matanda-Moyo said.

She further instructed that accused persons facing petty offences should not be kept in custody.

“All accused remanded in custody facing petty offences must be admitted to bail on appropriate conditions,” the memo reads.

To ease pressure on overcrowded prisons, prosecutors have also been directed to make use of fast-track courts to speed up non-complex cases likely to attract non-custodial sentences, and to ensure that no accused person is detained for more than six months without trial, except in serious cases or under exceptional circumstances.