By Perpetua Murungweni
Masvingo prominent businessman Sternly Mhande Kondongwe was appointed as the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Commissioner on December 19, 2024, by President Emmerson Munangagwa.
Kondongwe was appointed alongside five other commissioners, namely Rosemary Kanonge, Simon Madzimure, Albert Mandinika, Chipo Mandela, and Utloile Silaigwana.
Kondongwe said he was humbled by the appointment as a commissioner and would be happy to serve his nation.
“There is a population of around 16 million in Zimbabwe, and being chosen to be a commissioner means a lot, and I’m humbled. I am happy to be serving my country, and I would like to thank the President, who saw it fit to appoint me, so I will continue serving the country,” said Kondongwe.
He promised to make sure that the commission serves its purpose as mandated by the constitution and to work towards the betterment of correctional services.
“It’s a constitutional requirement that the ZPCS must have this commission, and we are mandated to oversee the operations within the correctional facilities. We don’t do the everyday operations work, but we sit as a commission, and most of our work is policy work,” said Kondongwe.
He said as a commissioner, his main focus was on the rehabilitation and reformation of inmates.
“My priority will be on the rehabilitation of inmates. I am going to make sure that those facilities are habitable, and I believe we cannot develop them all at once, but I think we need to start from somewhere. There is a need to redo all the facilities, and as the commission, we are going to make sure that our prison services will improve.
“We are going to facilitate production improvement at prison farms to have adequate food for the inmates. As a commission, we are going to promote human rights within prisons and ensure that inmates are treated with dignity,” he said.
Before his appointment, Kondongwe had been running charity programs, where he sets seven days aside every year for helping those in need, and he has in the past helped Masvingo’s Mutimurefu Prison through his ZPCS charity programs.
He served for six years as a committee member of the Provincial Committee for ZPCS. During his time on the committee, he managed to implement a number of projects, such as fisheries and farming, and lobbied for pivot irrigation at Mutimurefu.
Kondongwe is a 49-year-old business entrepreneur who runs motor vehicle services and sales in Masvingo, Bulawayo, and Gweru, Byword Logistics, Jadecon Construction and Engineering, as well as Jadecon Foods.
