Zimbabwean prisoners are now guaranteed a diet consisting of beans fish, fresh peas, ground nuts and milk instead of thick maize meal porridge and cabbages on a daily basis.

 The Ministry of Justice, which oversees the country’s 42 prisons, also announced that it was now mandatory for inmates to get bread, rice and potatoes regularly.

The announcement of the new diet for prisoners was made in a government gazette published last Friday.

 Inmates will also have the luxury of eating fruits once a week.

 Last year government proposed to feed inmates with elephant meat in a bid to improve their diet and keep the population of the huge mammals under check.

 In the past prisoners were subjected to daily bowls of maize meal porridge and cabbages as the prison authorities could not afford proper meals.

 Several inmates died of malnutrition at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis that ended with the formation of a unity government in 2009.

 There were also as sharp increase in the deaths of people infected with HIV as they had no access to life prolonging drugs.

By Staff reporter and agencies