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This job can go hang
Stanley Kwenda, Financial Gazette
July 19, 2007

There have been no takers for the gory job of hangman, and anti-death penalty activists say this is evidence that Zimbabweans are opposed to capital punishment.

Activists say the time has therefore come for Zimbabwe to abolish capital punishment. But as the debate rages, the courts continue to mete out the death sentence, swelling the numbers on death row. No one out of the millions of jobless Zimbabweans seems to be interested in taking up the macabre job. This could be a reflection of the sentiments of Zimbabwean society about capital punishment.

Traditional chiefs, anti-death penalty activists and government officials met in Harare last week to discuss the possibility of abolishing the death penalty.

"We are here to solicit your views on the death penalty law in Zimbabwe. We are coming to you as our elders and opinion leaders in our Zimbabwean society," said Edson Chiota, coordinator of the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders (ZACRO). "The country has been failing to attract a Zimbabwean for the job of a hangman since 1995. During the period between 1995 to 2001, Zimbabwe did not carry out any executions, not because there were no people on death row, but because there was no Zimbabwean prepared to take up the job," said Chiota. "The executions only started in 2001 after the job was given to a foreigner. If all of us are not prepared to take up the job, why do we want people to be killed?"

Since the beginning of the year, ZACRO has been spearheading a national anti-death penalty campaign. The organisation has lined up meetings with traditional leaders, churches, the general public and members of parliament. It will also embark on street campaigns and the distribution of T-shirts inscribed with anti-death penalty messages.

But the organisation is likely to find opinion sharply divided. "You should be given a sentence in accordance with your crime. If you deliberately kill, you should also be killed," Chief Makoni declared, eliciting strong opposing views from his colleagues.

"Is it the custom in our culture that one who kills should also be killed? If one kills, and we say they should be killed, are we solving anything? How does the family of the person killed benefit?" asked Chief Bushu.

After heated debate, the consensus that emerged among the chiefs was that tradition outlaws executions. Some within civil society have inevitably given the debate a political slant. They say the death penalty is a relic of colonial legislation, a tool for silencing dissent.

Wonder Chakanyuka, ZACRO's information and publicity officer, did not dwell on whether the death penalty was being used to crush dissent. He focused on the perception that the death penalty violated traditional norms and was a throwback to the colonial era. "It was used to intimidate and eliminate black people, and as Zimbabweans, we cannot continue having this law on our books," he argued in a newspaper article. "An increasing number of African states have abolished the death penalty and Zimbabwe cannot afford to be left behind."

The Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT) has also come out staunchly against the death penalty saying it should be replaced by life imprisonment to allow for "reflection and reform." "The courts can sentence someone to death, but they cannot be 100 percent sure that the person has committed the crime," said Noel Kututwa, SAHRIT executive director. The office of the Master of the High Court was contacted to establish the number of prisoners on death row but these efforts proved fruitless. However, 70 executions are known to have taken place since 1980.

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