Death penalty duels

IT’S TIME for everyone to declare their views on the death penalty.

Two prominent world leaders recently made their views about this vexatious issue abundantly clear.

The loose cannon US President Donald Trump called for the death penalty for the perpetrator of the recent “terrorist” attack on US soil. The attacker rammed a vehicle into a crowd, killing eight people.

This is, as we all know, blatant interference by a high-ranking politician in the judicial process, which is unheard of in democracies.

Rory Stewart, the UK International Development minister, said converts who leave the UK to fight for the terrorist group Islamic State are guilty of horrific acts, and the only way to deal with them is to kill them, but not on home soil, in Syria!

The difference between these two countries is that the US has the death penalty and Britain abolished it in 1965. When people believe that the only way to deal with violent people is to get rid of them in an equally violent way, then this world is in serious trouble.

Our country also abolished this scourge with the dawn of democracy. Each and every one of us, especially those who make the laws, should come clean and make their views about this cruel form of punishment clear.We already know that all the little parties forming the opposition, including the DA, thought that supporting it, or allowing their supporters to exercise a so-called free or “conscience” vote, would score them votes.

The ANC was the only party that carried out the decision taken at Codesa, that the death penalty should never ever again return to our shores.

The only problem is that people would, just like the misguided politicians mentioned above, back it out of fear, hatred, vengeance, retribution and lack of forgiveness.

This slippery slope inevitably leads to the demise of such rogue states. Koert Meyer Welgelegen