63 inmates escape the hangman’s noose

SIXTY-THREE inmates convicted of murder will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

This was after Citizens Coalition for Change Member of Parliament for Dzivarasekwa, Edwin Mushoriwa brought the proposed law to Parliament through a Private Members Bill.

The government has already gazetted the Bill after it sailed through the lower and upper houses.

Zimbabwe last had execution in 2005 and 61 inmates have been on the row since then until Tapiwa Makore’s two murderers were sentenced to death by High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi.

However, Mushoriwa said the death penalty should be abolished in totality since there is a high risk that future lawmakers might re-enact the law because the Constitution provides for that.

“I am worried that other MPs who might come in the future could reeanct the law because our Constitution has that loophole. So, I hope the death penalty is going to be totally abolished,” he said.

The move was lauded by Amnesty International Zimbabwe as the right step towards ending the inhuman punishment.

Amnesty International has been opposing the death penalty for a long time without exception because it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

South African-based lawyer, advocate Tererai Rector Mafukidze, who is a member of the Johannesburg Bar buttressed Amnesty International Zimbabwe’s position on death penalty and told journalists that the abolition of the death penalty was overdue as the law is archaic.

“The death penalty serves no purpose. It has been used as a political tool to victimise black opponents particularly during the colonial era and post-independence,” Mafukidze said.