Nkosentsha Khumalo
In Pumula South, a suburb in Bulawayo well known for its most hardened criminals, high crime rate and teenage shenanigans, a group of minors was caught red-handed hosting a Vuzu party.
The party was a hotbed of underage drinking and illicit activities. When the police and some parents swept in to break up the gathering following a tip-off, they found condoms and alcohol scattered around the place, which was the revealing the nature of the party. After sometime, the names of some minors involved were leaked to the public and the repercussions were swift, with a few teens being expelled from school.
The future of these wayward teens was hanging by a thread, but the Pre-Trial Diversion (PTD) Program for Children in Conflict with the Law emerged as a beacon of hope and offered them a second chance.
In a society, where juvenile offenders are often stigmatized and dehumanized by the criminal justice system, the Pre-Trial Diversion Program is breathing new life into the way children are treated when they conflict with the law.
The program focuses on rehabilitation and reintegration, diverting first-time juvenile offenders from the court system and instead providing them with counseling, schooling, and constructive activities to address the underlying factors that may have led to their criminal behavior.
PTD is a program that is designed to give children a second chance to reform without necessarily getting a criminal record.
The Pre-Trial Diversion Program was conceived in 2009, in response to the observation that children often commit crimes due to circumstances beyond their control. In 2013, the program was introduced in Zimbabwe, initially piloted in five districts namely Gweru, Bulawayo, Harare, Mrewa, and Chitungwiza.
Upon completion of the pilot project in 2016, an evaluation revealed that the majority of the children who went through the program did not re-offend.
Encouraged by the positive impact of the program, it was then expanded to reach all parts of the country of Zimbabwe. The goal was to create a more just, compassionate, and rehabilitative justice system that gives young people a chance to turn their lives around.
The program’s emphasis on addressing the underlying causes of juvenile delinquency sets it apart from traditional punitive measures. By helping children overcome poverty, trauma, or other difficulties, it is believed that this will create a future where crime is not the only option for vulnerable youth.
During an interview with Zim GBC News at the recently held workshop for the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs at a local hotel in Bulawayo, the Pre-Trial Diversion Program Coordinator, Sandra Sanganga revealed how her department mainly specialises on Children’s rights and how the minors are diverted from the harsh reality of the criminal justice system and instead placed in a supportive environment where they could address the root causes of their behavior and ultimately, turn their lives around.
“So what happens is that when a child is arrested, the child is referred to us for assistance. We do our assessments and if we feel that the child qualifies for diversion, we then admit the child onto the program and we work with them to ensure that they are rehabilitated and reintegrated back into the community.
“The beauty about this program is that it also gives the courts an opportunity to actually focus on serious offenses and also to concentrate on those more serious offenders who would have committed serious offenses that deserve to go through the court system.”
Sanganga believes that children often commit offenses not because they are inherently bad or have criminal intent, but because of the circumstances in which they are raised.
Poverty, lack of education, or other social factors can lead to children engaging in delinquent behavior.
The Pre-Trial Diversion Program seeks to address these underlying causes, giving children the tools and support they need to break the cycle of crime and build productive, fulfilling lives.
“So this program comes into play to try and rehabilitate the child and make sure that those underlying causes that are influencing the criminal behavior in the child are addressed and the child becomes a law-abiding citizen.
“If a child commits a crime for the second or the third time, they may not qualify for the program. They may not qualify for diversion, as we only deal with first-time offenders. And also what I have realized is that a lot of children that have gone through the program have not gone back to commit further offenses because of the interventions that come into play when the child is said to have committed a crime. For example, the child is taken through counseling. If there’s need for the child to go through counseling, the child is referred to counseling then taken through counseling process. If there are underlying factors that seem to be contributing to the criminal behavior of the child, those factors are also addressed.”
“In instances where the child has been expelled from school, we link up with the Department of Social Development to ensure that the child is readmitted back into school.”
In addition to counseling, the PTD Program may refer children to vocational training centers or other programs to address specific needs that could contribute to their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Sandra Sanganga emphasized that the program’s approach is tailored to each individual, ensuring that the interventions are effective and sustainable. The aim is to give children the skills and support they need to succeed in life, regardless of the specific rehabilitation institution involved.
Sanganga further said the PTD program under the Ministry of Justice makes constructive use of the children’s spare time by making sure that they have things that occupy them whenever they are free or whenever their parents are not around.
“Rehabilitation commences immediately as we come into contact with the child. The moment that we come into contact with the child at the police station, that’s where we begin our rehabilitation with the child. Because the moment that we start to talk to the child, already we are actually working with the mind. Rehabilitation is within the mind and you can’t touch it. “
Sanganga said Pre-Trial Diversion is a multi-agents or multi-stakeholder program whereby they work with other partners within the national program.
“We are part of the case management system. We are also part of the national case management system, which is within the Department of Social Development under the Ministry of Public Safety, Labor and Social Welfare. So through that system, we are able then to refer children that need further management to our other partners.
“For example, if a child requires food assistance, we then match that child with a particular partner that we know that is able to provide food assistance to that particular family. If the child is said to have committed some mischief because of disability problems that they have, we can actually refer them to organizations such as GF Catholic or GF Zimbabwe Trust, organizations that we know that they assist children with such incapacities. If there is need for school fees, maybe the child is out of school, and they are of primary school going age, we can also make recommendations to the Department of Social Development so that the child is also enrolled on Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM)”
She stressed that some of the challenges they have encountered with rolling out the program is not particularly with the children, but with the parents refusing to cooperate.
“Some parents refuse to cooperate, maybe because they are just fed up with the child and they think the criminal justice system should just take over the child and lock them up in prison. Other parents are incapacitated so much that they feel there is need for reparation and they are unable to meet the requirements of the reparation.”
“The beauty about criminal diversion is that it also gives the child or the parent an opportunity to compensate, if there’s need for compensation, to compensate the victim for the damages caused by the offense committed by the child. So in some instances, some parents are unable to pay the compensation or the reparation. So these are the challenges that we encounter. But then, however, we don’t let those challenges affect the child or disadvantage the child merely because the parents are refusing to cooperate or they do not have the capacity to pay the reparation. We still commit the child to the program because at the end of the day, what is in the best interest of the child is what he wants to achieve.”
Sanganga further told that they also always give the children offenders an opportunity to ask for forgiveness from the victims.
“So we give the child an opportunity to offer an apology. The victim also expresses how the offense has affected them, their family and everyone else around them. So through that victim-offender mediation, we then help to bring out and give the victim closure and also to find it in themselves to forgive and also restore societal functioning.”
“We are just going to ensure that every child in conflict with the law is given a legal opportunity to fulfill the law. This we are doing by making sure that we extend the services to all the districts in the country. The President, His Excellency always says in his mantra, “leaving no one and no place behind. We don’t want to disadvantage certain children because of their geographical location. We want to make sure that whether a child is in Mzingwane or they are in Bubi, they get the same opportunity that a child in Harare is getting.”
Sanganga raised concern that the country will end up falling to have a future President in the coming years if minors in conflict with the law are given a criminal record, hence the need to prepare them for the future.
She said since 2017, the goal has always been working towards making sure that the program is extended to all the districts of the country.
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