LEGISLATORS have said their hands are tied over abolition of death penalty in Zimbabwe, saying scrapping the sentence rests more with the executive and political party leaders than Parliament.
Speaking during commemorations of the World Day against Death Penalty this Monday, legislators from the parliamentary parties - MDC-T and Zanu PF - said the laws of the country give their superiors control over what MPs do in the August House.
MDC-T legislator Jessie Majome, who also chairs Parliament's Legal committee, said the whipping system compromises their role.
"Our parliament is an arena of party politics. That's the way it is. We take positions in parliament according to what our party decides or doesn't decide.
"I come from a party that has a minority in Parliament therefore I couldn't master enough support when I challenged the death penalty in the house," she said.
Fortune Chasi of Zanu PF concurred, saying MPs could only deliberate and pass such laws with the blessing of the executive.
"The Zimbabwean parliament reacts to what the executive brings before it," he said.
The MPs were responding to advocate Fadzai Mahere who had accused the legislature of dragging its feet on aligning the Criminal Procedure, Evidence Act with the section 48 of constitution which guarantees the right to life.
The constitution now limits the death penalty to cases of aggravated murder while exempting women and only men below 21 and above 70 years.
The death penalty is being challenged on the basis that it is irreversible, colonial, lacks evidence of deterring others from similar crimes while innocent people have been executed in the past.
117 prisoners on death row
Official statistics show that there are at least 117 convicted inmates on the death row in Zimbabwe although legislative watchdog Veritas claims the total could be double the figure.
The opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) joined other parties in calling for the immediate abolition of the death penalty in Zimbabwe, saying it was in breach of the country's Constitution, which guarantees and protects the right to life for every citizen.
"They are living a life without hope, alienation and vilification and the prison for them has become a prison within a prison.
"Some of these condemned prisoners are having mental health challenges or are terminally ill," said the party in a statement this Monday.
Zimbabwe has an unofficial moratorium on the penalty since 2005 but executions can begin anytime as government recently announced that it was looking to recruit a hangman.
Veritas director, Val Ingham-Thorpe, said suspending executions instead of abolition of the death penalty is torturous on the death row inmates. She said her organisation would soon launch a constitutional challenge over the issue.
"Prisoners are not told in advance when they are to be executed," she said.
"Every morning when the warders enter the cell block each prisoner listens to their footsteps in terror in case they stop outside their cell to take them for execution. Think of suffering that kind of torture for 20 years."
Prison conditions in Zimbabwe, according to human rights activists, are deplorable, thereby adding to the torture of death row inmates.
About 102 countries in the world have abolished the death sentence on all crimes while 58 countries have retained it.
Lesotho, Botswana and DRC are the three SADC countries currently executing people on death row.
Source: allafrica.com, October 11, 2016
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