Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s president, Daniel Chapo, on Wednesday announced the construction of 97 court buildings and 10 penitentiary establishments by 2029, in order to bring the institutions of the law closer to citizens and reduce overcrowding in the country’s prisons.
“We have set a five-year target of ninety-seven justice facilities to be built by 2029… and we also intend to build ten prisons,” said Chapo during a ceremony to inaugurate three district courts in the province of Manica, in the centre of the country.
According to the head of state, the facilities will make it possible to “bring the institutions of justice closer to their real beneficiaries: the citizens of all the districts” of the country, as well as “giving more dignity to the treatment of prisoners, reducing overcrowding in prisons.
“The proximity of justice to the citizen demonstrates our ongoing concern to pacify society, through social order in the event of violations,” added Chapo.
The president said that the new court buildings would be added to the more than 70 that already exist in the country.
Mozambique is struggling with overcrowding in its prisons, which house around 21,000 prisoners, for an installed capacity of 4,498 people, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice.
The country’s attorney general, Américo Letela, recently argued that, in view of the overcrowding, the country needs to build more prisons, pointing out that there is a need for more prisons, recalling that In addition, most of Mozambique’s prisons were built during the colonial period.
Mozambique currently has almost 160 prisons, including regional, provincial and district prisons.
In July 2023, the government announced its intention to build at least 10 new district-level prisons across the country.
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