Death penalty advocates have just one solution - a violent, unworkable one
THERE must be other reasons why death penalty propagandists are persisting with their only solution, a violent, unworkable, impractical one: “Simple solution to SA’s violent crime”, March 12.
This scourge was tried in our country in the colonial era which spanned more than two centuries, and again by the brutal (also unworkable) apartheid regime for the entire 42 years of its rule.
As usual, this letter contains lies, oversimplifications etc, starting with its heading. How on Earth can killing people be classified as a “simple solution” when first, no police force anywhere on this planet can catch all wrongdoers, have the few they do catch convicted in dysfunctional and even (politicised) judicial systems as our country is now experiencing, and then haul those even fewer unfortunate ones who could not afford clever legal brains to get them off the hook to the gallows?
Our country’s conviction rate is one of the lowest in the world, our police are not properly trained, our jails are overcrowded and unscrupulous defence teams are muddying a dismal system.
There must have been a time long ago when all countries believed in this “simple” solution, only to soon realise that it’s wholly impractical to kill so many people.
This is the salient question today’s misguided propagandists should answer: Exactly how are they going to kill 21 000 murderers every year? Gallows will have to operate non-stop, and ours have already been dismantled, now a reminder of our brutal past. What about the rapists, gangsters, arsonists, terrorists, drunk and reckless drivers etc, who also kill many people?
More than half the 194 countries constituting the UN have already abolished it, as they’ve done with slavery, human trafficking, child labour etc. The dice are heavily loaded against these false prophets, but persist they will, knowing full well that so many fearful folks will believe their Goebbels-like lies told over and over until they are believed, with devastating results.
In many Middle-Eastern countries people can be executed for changing their religion, called apostasy.
In our country, 136 political activists were hanged, one of them Andrew Zondo, who was convicted by the late Judge Ramon Leon, the father of Tony Leon, former leader of the DA. Is it any wonder that this pitiful party cannot make up their minds whether to support the death penalty or to oppose it?
Who were the judges that sent Solomon Mahlangu, another martyr, and the others to their deaths?
The death penalty is a racist monstrosity out to decimate the poor, the marginalised, people who do not look like us, like we see is happening in one of the world’s most violent countries, the USA.
Our country desperately needs a DPIC (Death Penalty Information Centre) like the one in Washington, so that people can arm themselves with credible information before these folks’ poison reaches them.