14 June 2011
Maputo — The Maputo Civil Prison, which stands on Kim il Sung Avenue in the heart of the city, is to be removed, and the site used for some other social infrastructure, yet to be decided.
According to the director of the National Prisons Service (SNAPRI), Eduardo Mussanhane, cited in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, a multi-sector commission is working on a proposal that will shortly be presented to the government.
“Within the next two months this commission should present the results of its work which will be delivered to the government for its assessment and approval. But the fact is that the Civil Prison will be dismantled”, said Mussanhane.
He justified this decision on the grounds that the prison is in a residential area, in the centre of the city, and is in a poor state of conservation.
He added that the prison will not be dismantled until new premises have been built to accommodate the current inmates. This new prison will probably be outside of the city, somewhere in Maputo province. Mussanhane stressed that the new premises “should reduce the costs of administering the prison”.
The main purpose of the Civil Prison is to hold prisoners who are under preventive detention, though there have been many cases of it accommodating men who have been tried and sentenced.
Most prisoners convicted in the capital, however, are held in Maputo Central Prison, and those regarded as dangerous are kept in the neighbouring Top Security Prison. These are both in Machava, which is a suburb of the city of Matola.
AllAfrica – All the Time
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Maputo Civil Prison to Be Removed