Cabinet to review death penalty Vice President Mnangagwa
Minister Mnangagwa

Minister Mnangagwa

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has said Cabinet will next week review and assess the appropriateness of the death penalty sentence imposed on 97 inmates who have been awaiting execution for years.
Presenting a paper at the commemoration of World Day of the Anti-Death Penalty Campaign yesterday in Harare, Minister Mnangagwa said each of the condemned murderers would be assessed based on their respective circumstances starting on Tuesday.

The commemorations were organised by the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO) with the assistance of the Embassy of Switzerland in Zimbabwe.

Minister Mnangagwa said his initial bid to have the 97 saved from death collectively failed with Cabinet saying each case should be considered on its own merits.

“We took the matter to Cabinet. Firstly, I put all the 97 inmates in about three pages of argument saying I wanted all of them removed from death row.

“Cabinet rejected the argument directing me to give the circumstances of each single inmate individually for assessment.

“I lost that bid because I had bundled everyone of the 97 inmates so that I could get what I wanted.

“Now I have been allowed to bring their cases in batches of 10 and I believe next Tuesday will be the first day of the assessment. When we decide, some will succeed while others will fail.

“Some will be given 20 years or so in prison, others may even be sentenced to life in prison depending on the circumstances of each case. But I would have loved to see all the 97 escaping capital punishment,” said Minister Mnangagwa.

Responding to a question by ZACRO programmes director Mrs Tecla Ponde, Minister Mnangagwa said the only female inmate on the row was undoubtedly off the hook considering that the new Constitution exempted women from capital punishment.

“That woman is already saved. It is guaranteed that she will not be hanged. What is left is for her to know her sentence but by next week she will be informed of her appropriate penalty,” said the minister.

Minister Mnangagwa called for the removal of death penalty from the statutes describing it as barbaric and inhuman.

“For the record, I want to pronounce myself clearly on the fact that the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights and a cold-blooded and abhorrent killing of a human being by the State in the name of justice.

“On the whole, research in the social sciences shows that capital punishment is abhorrent and does not deter crime,” he said.

Minister Mnangagwa said he would do his best to ensure that no one was hanged during his tenure as Justice Minister.

Speaking at the same function, Chief Nyakunhuwa of Zaka said the Chief’s Council was against death penalty adding that it was brought about by colonialism in the country.

“As chiefs, we do not support death penalty at all. Before colonialism, we used to be governed by our traditional leaders and we did not have the death penalty.

“Traditionally, we believed compensation was the best way to manage or to stop the avenging spirits and we would perform rituals and solve the issue peacefully without further bloodshed.

“With the coming in of the whites, we started using the Roman-Dutch Law that calls for ‘an eye-for an eye’ and people are now being sentenced to death,” he said.

Chief Nyakunhuwa called for restorative justice to prevail in Zimbabwe.

Roman Catholic priest Father Fidelis Mukonori did not give the church’s clear position on the penalty leaving the subject for the discussants to debate.

He firstly quoted the fifth commandment of God “Thou shall not kill” saying killing was bad but later went on to raise some points suggesting that the nation might execute for justice. Father Mukonori cited the case of Abraham in the Old Testament, who offered to sacrifice his own son to please God.

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