Beverly Bizeki
Masvingo residents who on March 28, 2023 at Mucheke Hall attended a public consultation meeting on the death penalty have said the death sentence law is discriminatory and advocated for stiffer penalties instead.
The meeting saw residents giving different views on the death penalty.
Leading one of the two teams, Charles Manhiri, Chief Law Officer in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs (MoJLPA) in the department of Policy and Legal Research said they were carrying out the consultations in order to establish a position for Zimbabwe on the death penalty.
Manhiri said the feedback from the public was varying in that others supported the death penalty while others were against it, depending on their backgrounds.
“What we are getting is that others say this type of penalty is discriminatory because it excludes women because of what is happening right now that there are lots of murder cases which are heinous.
“Some are saying from a religious point of view that we are not the Lord and only God has the right to take life while some other people think we must look at what other countries are doing most of which are advocating for the removal of the death sentence,” said Manhiri.
David Vurayayi a local pastor in Masvingo said the law is unfair if it leaves out women although the sentence should be abolished.
“The law is not fair if women are not subjected to the death sentence since there is now equality between men and women. However, the sentence is not good in that a person who has committed murder when hanged would not have experienced the kind of pain he deserves to go through so it’s better to have them serve lengthy jail terms,” said Vurayayi.
Others however said the law should be abolished as there are some people who are imprisoned and yet innocent.
“The justice system in the country is supposed to be perceived, straightforward and transparent but ours is said to be lacking transparency and having corruption so innocent people might get implicated in such laws,” said Kudzai Chimhanda.
“Our justice system must be restorational and not retributive, there are chances that innocent people might get killed as well as violation of the right to life which means violation of the African Charter on the right to life overally,” said a human rights activist only identified as Madzinga.
Henry Chivhanga, a human rights defender with the Disability Amalgamation Community Trust (DACT) said those without resources would be victims of this law as they have little to nor resources to help themselves.
“Some people have submitted that prison cells are filled with people but you might realize that those inside are at times innocent but are lacking financial resources to get their freedom so it’s not good to have people killed,” said Chivhanga.
Gambiwa Simeon said the proposed sentence in a way targeted the ‘have nots’ because the rich can always buy their freedom but he however said there needed to be stiffer penalties.
However some people were of the view that some murder cases deserve a death penalty citing that the punishment prisoners get was not enough but is having its toll on the tax payers’ money.
“Murder under aggravating circumstances is very bad and should be punishable by death rather than have such criminals being fed from the country’s resources while doing nothing in prison cells,” said another attendee.
Tavengwa Mazhambe said although the death penalty law is discriminatory, it can help curb heinous crimes.
Musoni also said the death penalty can serve as a deterrent and help reduce cases of murder in the country.
Zimbabwe has however not hanged anyone since 2005 although the moratorium is unofficial.
The MoJLPA is partnered by Centre for Applied Legal Research and funded by the Swiss Embassy in these consultations.
