The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government is set to embark on a nationwide consultation that is expected to inform the country’s adoption of reforms on the death penalty amid revelations that there are 62 prisoners on death row and no hangman to carry out the executions.
The consultations will be done by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs with the support from Centre for Applied Legal Research (CALR) and the Embassy of Switzerland. Zimbabwe has been operating with no hangman and there have not been executions in the last 18 years, despite the country’s courts still passing death sentences as enshrined in the 2013 Constitution that was adopted following a referendum after a constitutional review process.
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs said it had recently convened a meeting, during which several recommendations on the possible reform of the death penalty were proffered.
“The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs with the support from Centre for Applied Legal Research (CALR) and the Embassy of Switzerland is in the process of drafting a death penalty position in Zimbabwe. After convening a High-Level Consultative meeting on the subject matter to inform policy formulation and law reform agenda, several recommendations were proffered in the meeting,” the statement read.
According to the ministry, one of the key out-takes from the meeting was the need for wide public consultation and consequently the need for the training of trainers and case care workers for that process.
“One major reason highlighted was to amass public opinion on the subject matter. Against this backdrop, the ministry shall hold consultations at grassroots level in March 2023 across the country’s provinces. Additionally, the ministry will conduct preliminary Training of Trainers with Case Care Workers, Village Health Workers and Youth Officers in anticipation of the actual consultations to capacitate the cadres on mobilisation of participants ahead of the consultations. The aim is to capacitate the cadres on mobilisation of participants ahead of the actual consultations to obtain a clear and unbiased representation of the community,” said the ministry.
Although capital punishment is still legal in Zimbabwe, in 2013, as Justice Minister then, President Mnangagwa publicly declared his disdain for capital punishment of prisoners.
“As someone who has been on death row myself and only saved by an ‘age technicality’, I believe that our justice delivery system must rid itself of this odious and obnoxious provision,” he said at the Harare Gardens on 10 October of that year.
While the country’s constitution adopted in 2013 did not to abolish the death penalty, it narrowed its scope and imposed restrictions on its use. Article 48 abolished the mandatory death penalty and the new discretionary death sentence can be imposed only for murder where there are aggravating circumstances. The new Constitution also abolished the death penalty for young people up to and including the age of 21 (at the time of the crime), for people aged 70 and over, and for all women.
