Zim gets it right by abolishing death penalty…Capital punishment has no place in progressive societies

Kudzai Gumbo

Correspondent

In February 2016, while serving as a Crimes and Court Correspondent for ZBC News, I had the opportunity to accompany then Vice President and Minister of Justice, Cde Mnangagwa, to Rome for the 9th International Meeting of Justice Ministers.

This significant conference, whose agenda was the abolition of the death penalty, drew justice ministers from around the globe, including Cde Mnangagwa.

When Cde Mnangagwa took the podium, it initially seemed like routine business. However, the conference was in for a surprise. Here was a Minister of Justice who had survived the death penalty during his youth.

In the 1960s, President Mnangagwa was captured by the oppressive racist regime while fighting for the liberation of his people from colonial bondage. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death, before surviving the hangman’s noose through a legal technicality which prohibited  the hanging of minors. He was under age.

As someone who spent time on the death row, Dr Mnangagwa came as a first-hand witness to the inhuman and barbaric nature of the death penalty. He unreservedly called on the world to abolish capital punishment.

Sadly, at that time the death penalty was still in the Zimbabwe’s statutes and, as the Vice President, the least he could do then was to advocate for its abolition.

In an interview on the sidelines of the conference, President Mnangagwa said; “I share the view that we should abolish the death penalty as a policy. I might be the lone voice, but I will continue to say so.”

It is said what happens in Rome stays in Rome but President Mnangagwa threw the ancient phrase into the dust bin by making sure what was said in Rome would be taken to Harare, and into the corridors of Munhumutapa and Mashonganyika Buildings.

Eight years later, the promise made in Rome has become a reality. Zimbabwe has finally abolished the death penalty.

The abolition of the death penalty has brought relief to over 50 inmates who have escaped the Hangman’s Noose, some of them after many years on death row.

Just eight years after his promise in Rome, the President has helped transform Zimbabwe’s legal landscape by signing into law the Death Penalty Abolition Act Chapter 9:26. This is in line with the Constitution of Zimbabwe which provides for the supremacy of the Constitution, its founding values; right to life and right to human dignity, among other rights.

The Death Penalty Abolition Act prohibits any court from imposing the death penalty and further bars anyone from carrying out a death sentence that has been previously imposed.

This development means that life sentence will be Zimbabwe’s highest form of punishment deterring offenders. In doing so, Zimbabwe has moved away from retrogressive to progressive forms of punishment, thereby promoting forgiveness, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates into the society.

Some may, however, have misgivings as to why a convicted murderer can only be given a life sentence.

The injustices of the death penalty far outweigh the little supposed gain through vengeful emotional massaging of our ego.

Zimbabwe being a Christian country fosters values of love, forgiveness and rehabilitation, thanks to the listening President for advocating for the abolition of capital punishment on both local and international forums.

South Africa abolished the death penalty after a 1995 landmark judgement in the famous case of State v Makwanyane where the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that Capital punishment was inconsistent with the commitment to human rights expressed in the interim Constitution.

Both the South African Constitution and the Zimbabwean Constitution had death sentences in which the then section 277 of the Criminal Procedure Act number 51 of 1977 of South Africa prescribed that the death penalty was a competent sentence for murder. Section 48(1) of the Zimbabwean Constitution provides for right to life, however section 48(2) came up with an exception stating that the law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.

The 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for the Supremacy of the Constitution stating that any law, practice, custom or conduct inconsistent with it is invalid to the extent of the inconsistency.

It further provides that the obligations imposed by the Constitution are binding on every person, natural or juristic including the State, the Executive, the Legislature, the Judicial institutions and agencies of Government …Despite these clear provisions, capital punishment was still being imposed on inmates, creating a legal gap which needed redress.

There are so many provisions in the Constitution which speak to protection of the right to life and the right to human dignity. The abolition of the death penalty has enabled every Zimbabwean to fully enjoy the inherent dignity in their private and public life and the right to have that dignity respected and protected.

Capital punishment violated that right to dignity. Death penalty can be viewed as a deterrent form of punishment, however research proves that countries with death penalty such as United States of America have not realised the desired goals as there is no reduction in violent crimes, on the contrary there is an increase in such crimes.

Wrongful conviction emerges as one of the most irreparable damages in cases where a death penalty has been imposed. On the 21st of November 2013, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted to posthumously pardon Charles Weems, Andy Wright and Haywood Patterson, three of the nine “Scottsboro Boys,” a group of black teenagers who were charged of raping two white women in 1931.

As if this was not enough, on January 11, 2019, the Florida Clemency Board unanimously pardoned posthumously the “Groveland Four,” four young African-American men who were wrongfully convicted of raping a young white woman in Lake Country, Florida in 1949.

In criminal matters, the prosecution bears the burden of proving that the defendant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt, but mistakes are often recorded, and hence the need for an alternative form of punishment.

The hypocrisy of posthumous pardon aside, wise Zimbabweans would borrow a little wisdom from their ancestors whose saying ‘Seri kweguva hakuna muteuro’ remains an all-time great proverb.

Indeed, Zimbabwe got it right. Capital punishment has no place in progressive societies.

Kudzai Gumbo has just completed an LLM in Constitutional and Human Rights Law with the Midlands State University. She is with the Department of Presidential Communications where she is a director.