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Zambia will mid this year start purchasing female officers’ shoes from the Karanga Prison in Moshi, it was revealed last week.

The Zambian Commissioner General of Prisons, Mr Percy Chato, made the revelation during a farewell dinner hosted for him on Thursday in the city.

Mr Chato said that he found the shoes to be “very nice for his female officers”.

“I cannot promise when, but what I’m sure of is just before June this year, we will come and purchase the shoes for my officers,” said Commissioner Chato.

He also hinted that he had been impressed by the prisoners’ rehabilitation efforts. “The carpentry classes and practicals being offered at Ukonga and the shoes industry at Karanga really shows that our fellows here wants to rehabilitate their prisoners,” remarked Commissioner Chato.

For his part, the Tanzanian Commissioner General of Prisons, Mr Minja Minja, welcomed the offer, noting that there was a need to amend the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two prisons in November 1990 to include a provision for doing business.

“We need to amend it so that it can help us during this digital era,” said Minja. He noted that the MoU focused mainly on research, training and general trade.

“We need to work together in a bid to strengthen prison services. This should go hand in hand with formulation of joint collaborative and collective approaches in treating prisoners,” Minja said