Prominent Zimbabwean lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu is considering a challenge to a law that prohibits prisoners from engaging in sexual intercourse with their spouses.
During the “Family Week” in 2019, Mayor Kanyezi, the chief correctional officer of the Zimbabwe Prison Correctional Services (ZPCS), said that while visiting rules and regulations for inmates were relaxed (during that week), this did not include the provision of conjugal rights. Said Kanyezi at the time:
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There are rights that are removed when someone has been convicted and sentenced in jail.
Soon after conviction, prisoners’ rights, rules and regulations are read to him or her, and rights such as having sex with your partner is not there.
Just getting convicted means you lose many of your rights that you were enjoying in the outside world.
We are saying this is a Family Week where you can visit and spend many hours with your incarcerated relatives but we are not saying those with spouses in jail can come and reignite their sexual relationships.
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Advocate Mpofu argues that denying conjugal rights to inmates undermines vital family bonds, which in turn affects the effectiveness of the prison system in rehabilitating offenders.
In a post on X, he asserted that conjugal rights are fundamental human rights essential for maintaining intimate relationships and fostering rehabilitation.
Mpofu argued that the state has a responsibility to uphold these rights, particularly for the benefit of innocent parties. Wrote Mpofu:
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Denying conjugal rights to spouses of incarcerated individuals raises concerns about the efficacy of our prison system.
How can rehabilitation occur when family bonds, essential to a person’s well-being, are disrupted?
Our stance is that prison should reform. How can it achieve that if it does not prioritize family life, itself the very core of human existence?
Further, why must the innocent spouse be punished by being denied conjugal activity whilst at the same time expected to wait faithfully for their incarcerated partner?
There is no doubt in my mind that conjugal rights are fundamental human rights, essential for maintaining intimate relationships and promoting rehabilitation.
That being the case, the state has a duty to uphold these rights, at least in the name of the innocent party.
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More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Pindula News

A top lawyer in Zimbabwe, Advocate Thabani Mpofu, is thinking about challenging a law that stops prisoners from having sex with their spouses. The chief correctional officer said during a special "Family Week" that prisoners cannot have conjugal rights. Advocate Mpofu believes that denying prisoners these rights hurts family connections and makes it harder for them to change and get better. He thinks that these rights are important for keeping intimate relationships and helping with rehabilitation. The state should protect these rights for the sake of innocent people. Mpofu thinks that prisons need to focus more on family life to help prisoners change.

Top Lawyer Considers Legal Challenge Against Law Banning Conjugal Visits For Prisoners

Kambuzuma Member of Parliament, Willias Madzimure (CCC), says Zimbabwe has to amend its laws to allow prison inmates to be permitted family time and to exercise their conjugal rights, as happens in other countries.
The Government is currently working on the Prisons and Corrections Services Bill, which seeks to reform legislation governing prisoners.
Madzimure argued that allowing family time for prison inmates will enable them to keep their families intact whilst they serve their sentences. <a href="https://cite.org.zw/give-inmates-family-time-and-conjugal-rights-mp/">CITE</a> quoted Madzimure as saying:
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It is important that we have a special day at the end of every month where the prisoners can interact with their families because we have already punished the inmate by incarcerating him.
I think it is important that we also work along those lines and do something to make sure that we have got full rehabilitation of prisoners.
A prisoner who spends ten years in prison after leaving a one-year-old child, the child will be nine years old by the time he is released.
For him to go home and say, “I am your father, I am back” and expect the child to really embrace the father and understand that this is the father, will be a torrid time for both the prisoner and the child.
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Madzimure also said when a married person or one in a relationship, is arrested and imprisoned, their partners should be allowed to visit them to provide conjugal rights. He said:
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I would want to raise the issue of conjugal rights for prisoners. In Sweden, the moment you are arrested, you are interviewed and you submit the name of your wife, if you are married and if you are a married woman, you submit the name of your husband.
If you are a person who is not yet married, you submit your girlfriend’s name.
So every Thursday, you are allowed to be visited by your wife or husband in private. The reason is very simple.
The issue of sexuality is not a secret and for us to expect someone to go to prison and spend ten years alone in prison without enjoying his or her rights, I think it is wrong.
This can be corrected so easily by making sure that we have prisoners with private accommodations that can be used for that purpose because let us not assume that there is nothing happening in prisons.
A lot of things happen in prison – so let it be clear that this is the facility that we have in prisons.
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Last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa pardoned 4 279 prisoners under the latest Presidential Amnesty.
According to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS), a total of 4 166 men and 104 women will be released from the country’s 47 main prisons and eight satellite prisons.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Give Prisoners Family Time And Conjugal Rights - CCC MP

A 50-year-old man from Cowdray Park, Bulawayo was recently fined ZWL$24 000 by a magistrate for assaulting his wife, accusing her of infidelity and denying him sex.
Evans Farai Chitanda (50), who is employed as a general hand at Dominican Convent School, appeared before magistrate Shepherd Mjanja on Tuesday, facing one count of domestic violence.
Mnjanja warned Chitanda to desist from the conduct of violence in future and fined Chitando ZWL$24 000.
Prosecuting, Tafara Dzimbanete said on 11 September, Chitanda arrived home from work and began accusing his wife, Mary Chikumba (44) of infidelity.
Dzimbanhete assaulted Chikumba once with a fist on the cheek while further accusing her of denying him his conjugal rights.
The complainant sustained no physical injuries and hence she did not seek any medical attention. | The Sunday News

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