Aggrieved woman petitions HC to force government to provide adequate maternal health facilities for detained mothers

An aggrieved woman has petitioned the High Court seeking an order compelling government to ensure the provision of adequate maternal health facilities in prisons, where conditions and facilities are inadequate to cater for detained women’s needs.

The concerned woman, Melissa Messe Chiyangwa, who is currently detained at Chikurubi Female Prison in Harare, after she was arrested on 23 June 2025 on theft charges, filed an urgent application at Harare High Court on Friday 1 August 2025 protesting against the poor conditions of maternal health facilities at the jail and a litany of shortfalls at the detention centre.

In the application, which was filed by Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Kelvin Kabaya of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Chiyangwa, who said she has a high risky pregnancy, argued that her right to health, dignity and life are in serious jeopardy owing to inadequate facilities to cater for her maternal needs at Chikurubi Female Prison.

The prisoner said she was advised by some Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services(ZPCS) guards at Chikurubi Female Prison that pregnant inmates are only taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare and they are not permitted to have access to their private doctors and private maternal facilities and was further advised that pregnant inmates are only taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital for delivery only when the pains of labour commence and not necessarily on the scheduled date for the C-section.

Chiyangwa said since 26 June 2025, which was the scheduled visit of her gynaecologist, she was neither allowed access to her gynaecologist nor taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital.

Chiyangwa said, ZPCS advised her that prison guards could not take her to Parirenyatwa Hospital because ante-natal visits to the state-run hospital are only done on Tuesday and those Tuesdays were clashing with her court session dates and no alternative arrangement to take her to Parirenyatwa Hospital on a day which is not a Tuesday to compensate for the eventuality of a clash with a court appearance was made.

At Chikurubi Female Prison Clinic, Chiyangwa said, nurses only prescribe paracetamol whenever she experiences frequent and severe back pains, which is against the advice of her gynaecologist, who clearly stated that she must be managed and attended to by a specialist doctor and not nurses.

The prisoner said she was only taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital on 29 July 2025, where she was attended to by a doctor who recommended that she should immediately go for scans at the state-run hospital, which could not be done as the machines were broken down and she was taken back to Chikurubi Female Prison after being advised to return on 6 August 2025 despite the doctor, who examined her at Parirenyatwa Hospital expressing concerns that she may have excessive amniotic fluid in her body.

Chiyangwa wants the High Court to issue an order directing ZPCS to assign and appoint a gynaecologist for Chikurubi Female Prison within seven days of the granting of the court order and to ensure that the gynaecologist is regularly present to attend to discharging his or her duties.

The prisoner wants the High Court to declare the conduct of the Officer In Charge at Chikurubi Female Prison, Moses Chihobvu, the Commissioner-General of ZPCS and the Sister In Charge at Chikurubi Female Prison and their subordinates, of denying pregnant inmates access to their private doctors at their own expense, as unlawful and a breach of the inmates’ right to communicate or be visited by their chosen medical practitioner as provided under section 50(5)(c)(v) of the Constitution and of their right to access basic productive health services guaranteed under section 76(1) of the Constitution.

Chiyangwa also contends that such conduct is a violation of section 50(5)(d) of the Constitution, which provides for the rights of prisoners to be detained in conditions of detention that are consistent with human dignity with the provision of adequate medical treatment at the state’s expense and which would imply the provision of adequate maternal health facilities to be utilised while under detention.

Zwnews