Mnangagwa Retires Long-serving 'Service Chief'

The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) Commissioner-General Paradzai Zimondi is reportedly being retired.

Zimondi is being retired on the recommendation of the Public Service Commission (PSC), ZimLive reports. The publication quoted its source as having said:

The PSC wrote to President Emmerson Mnangagwa in June stating that Zimondi had reached the retirement age [65 years], and recommended his retirement. Mnangagwa approved and the PSC formalised the process.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Virginia Mabhiza, could not confirm the development saying there are protocols to be followed.

The 73-year-old former Major General in the Air Force of Zimbabwe – as one of the country’s ‘service chiefs’ – was a cog in a repressive security apparatus that is blamed for many atrocities since his appointment in 1997.

In 2008 Zimondi reportedly ordered all prison officers to vote for the then President Robert Mugabe in elections against ‘sell-out’ Morgan Tsvangirai, who was the leader of the opposition MDC.

More: ZimLive