Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has pardoned all female prisoners except those on death row or serving life sentences as his government seeks to decongest overcrowded prisons.

President Mugabe’s cash-strapped government has been struggling to feed the close to 20,000 prisoners in the country’s jails where inmates often complain of poor living conditions.

The latest amnesty will see at least 2,000 prisoners being released in the next few days. President Mugabe also freed all juveniles irrespective of their crimes.

“Our 46 prisons nationwide are overpopulated. We have a holding capacity of 17,000, but we have been holding over 19,900 prisoners,” Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services public relations officer Priscilla Mthembo was quoted saying on Thursday.

“This shows that we are overpopulated with over 16 per cent and this presidential pardon will go a long way in decongesting our prisons and facilitating good living conditions for those that remain behind.”

The pardon also covered terminally ill prisoners and those convicted of stock theft.

It left convicts serving time for sexual offences, armed robbery, carjacking and other violence related crimes.

At least 139 female inmates were released on Wednesday from one of Harare’s biggest prisons.

Zimbabwe’s prison population has borne the brunt of the country’s economic problems that have seen the government struggling to provide basics such as a balanced diet and uniforms.

At the height of the economic crisis in 2008, a South African television station exposed hunger related deaths in Zimbabwe’s prisons, which moved humanitarian organisations to intervene.

The investigation also showed that prisons were being forced to go naked as authorities were failing to provide uniforms.

Parliamentarians have also expressed concern over the poor diet at the underfunded correctional facilities.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been struggling for over a decade and declining revenues have seen President Mugabe’s government finding it difficult to fund its operations.