“Today we have men who are merely wearing the gender title of being males, while in reality they are not 'men'. Stop being those men!”
Those were the words of Munna Ndi Nnyi's director, Bardwell Mufunwaini, to the prisoners at the Makhado Correctional Centre during the domestic violence awareness campaign last Thursday.
“Morals are gone,” he said. “We used to sleep outdoors in the open in summer, but we can't enjoy doing that kind of thing today. Hu na mavemu (There are criminals)! Men must stop pretending to be real men. Real men do not disturb other people's peace.”
He said that there were men who would assault their wives because she had come back home late. “But when you do the same, nobody beats you,” he said.
He then gave a painful example of a man who had consumed mpesu (aphrodisiac concoction) and hid in the dark, so that he could attack any woman and rape her. Indeed, a woman came to pass by where he had hidden himself.
“He kicked her in the chest and she fell down,” he said frankly. “The moment he started tearing off her clothes and unzipping his crotch, the woman spoke: 'Oh my son – how can you do this ugly act to me, your own mother!' He left her and ran away. Whose mother did he want to abuse?”
He then urged all prisoners to start behaving like men. “Stop behaving like boys. A real man never lays his hand on a woman; only cowards do that,” he said.
At least 85 inmates are part of rehabilitational programmes, such as family and marriage care, life skills, and substance abuse.
Social worker Ms Refiloe Thovhakale said that some offenders were in correctional facilities because they committed different types of crime. "Working with offenders is not easy. I understand human behaviour, though,” said Refiloe. She warned that people must go to school, they must do away with peer pressure, and they must not be involved in crime.
An inmate, Madumi Thavhana, who received a marriage family certificate through the programme, said he was a better person now than before he was incarcerated. “Prison is not good,” he said. “All children must listen to their parents, go to school and do away with substance abuse.”
