Mnangagwa snubs death penalty meeting

Mnangagwa, who is also Zimbabwes defence minister, did not show up at the workshop jointly organised by Amnesty International Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum in Harare from 24-25 January. The meeting was attended by Ms Dupe Atoki, a Commissioner with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), traditional leaders, the two legal secretaries from the two MDC factions Minister Gonese, minister Coltart to give their party submissions with minister Mnangagwa from Zanu (PF) failing to turn up, Amnesty said.

It was not clear whether the no-show by Mnangagwa was a reflection of Zanu (PF)s position on the issue of the death penalty. The workshop was attended by lawyers, human rights defenders and members from various civil society organizations such as the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations and Zimbabwe Human Rights Association.

Participants unanimously agreed to come up with strategies and tools to influence key stakeholders to support the call for the abolition of the death penalty in the new Constitution and other platforms like applications to the Supreme Court.

Traditional leaders denounced death penalty as a Western idea brought about by the settler colonialist regime and submitted that it was un-African to kill as that the African culture places sacred importance to the right to life, Amnesty said.

Amnesty International has been campaigning for Zimbabwes political leaders to use ongoing constitutional reforms to abolish the death penalty. It views the reforms being implemented by the coalition government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as an opportunity for Zimbabwe to join many other countries in Africa that have abolished capital punishment.

There is growing push in Africa and the world at large for abolition of the death penalty that human rights activists say is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, degrading and a violation of the supreme right to life. Of the African Union (AU)s 53 states, 49 did not carry out any executions during 2008 and 2009, including many that still have capital punishment on their statute books.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights has repeatedly called on AU member states to abolish the death penalty. The United Nations General Assembly has also adopted resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty. In Zimbabwe, statistics show that no execution has taken place since 2005, although the courts have continued imposing the death sentence on offenders.

According to figures available from the Ministry of Justice there were 52 prisoners on death row in Zimbabwe in 2009.

Zimbabwe expects to complete writing a new constitution this year that will pave way for the holding of new elections to choose a new government to replace Mugabe and Tsvangirais coalition administration. There is hope that a new constitution will guarantee basic freedoms, strengthen Parliament and limit the Presidents immense powers.