THE High Court has issued a landmark ruling directing prison authorities to allow pregnant inmates to access maternal health care services of their choice instead of forcing them to go to government hospitals against their will Justice Neville Wamambo issued the ruling last week after a desperate pregnant inmate was denied access to her private gynaecologist despite that her pregnancy was noted as high risk The applicant, Melissa Messe Chiyangwa, filed an urgent application at the Harare High Court protesting against the poor conditions of maternal health facilities at Chikurubi female prison in Harare She is detained at the facility following her June 23 arrest on theft charges
Chiyangwa’s lawyers Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Kelvin Kabaya from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said their client missed her appointment with her private doctor after she was blocked by prison authorities Instead, authorities directed her to Parirenyatwa Hospital where maternal health care services are inadequate, posing a risk to her unborn baby “The applicant’s next visit to her gynaecologist was scheduled for 26 June 2025, an appointment which she missed because the first respondent, second respondent and third respondent could not allow her access to her private doctor,” the lawyers submitted They cited the officer in charge of Chikurubi female prison, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) commissioner general, sister in charge Chikurubi female prison, Justice and Legal Affairs and Health and Child Care ministers as respondents
“The applicant was only taken to Parirenywata hospital on July 29 where she was attended to by a doctor and nurses who do not have her patient notes and history,” her lawyers said “The doctor expressed fears that the applicant may be having excessive amniotic fluid and directed that she undergoes a scan
“She went to the scan section, but the scan machines at Parirenywatwa were not working.”
The lawyers 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 They cited section 50(5)(c)(v) of the constitution which states that any detained person has a right to communicate and be visited by their medical practitioner “Furthermore, the respondents being agents of the state are obliged in terms of section 50 (5)(d) of the constitution to ensure that the conditions of detention are consonant with conditions of human dignity and the respondents being the agents of the state are reposed with an obligation to ensure that there are adequate facilities for medical treatment,” they submitted
“Furthermore, in terms of section 76 (1) of the constitution, the applicant has a right to access basic health care services including reproductive health care services which are being sought and desperately being craved for by the applicant in the instant matter.”
Source: The Standard Zimbabwe
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Source: Thestandard
