Calls for Referendum on Death Penalty

Human rights activists are calling on Government to conduct a referendum that they hope will result in abolition of the death sentence. Mr Edson Chiota, chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender, said the constitution-making process did not particularly address issues to do with the death sentence.

“In terms of capital punishment, the constitution-making process failed to discuss this issue in its proper context. The two political parties, Zanu-PF and MDC T, reached a number of compromises during the constitution-making process and the issue of the death sentence was, as a result, not properly looked into,” Mr Chiota said.

Mr Chiota said hanging was a “foreign concept” and called upon Government to conduct a referendum to determine whether or not Zimbabweans support the death penalty.

“The public must be educated about the effects of the imposition of capital punishment so that they become level-headed and speak against this this cruel and evil practice,” Mr Chiota said.

However, indications during the constitution-making process were that the majority of Zimbabweans favoured the death sentence.
But Mr Cousin Zilala, director of Amnesty International Zimbabwe, said: “Issues to do with the death sentence evoke emotions and take away reason. In most countries that abolished the death sentence, the state did so against popular public sentiment.”