The Death Penalty Abolition Bill has successfully passed through the Senate and now awaits President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s signature to become law.
Zimbabwe’s last execution took place nearly 20 years ago, in 2005. Currently, over 60 individuals remain on death row in the country.
President Mnangagwa, who has openly opposed capital punishment, drew on his personal experience during the 1960s liberation war when his own death sentence for sabotaging a train was commuted to a 10-year prison term.
After extensive debate, the Bill was reviewed for the second time with minor amendments and then passed in its third reading without further changes.
Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi urged Senate members to approach the Bill with care due to its sensitive nature before it received their approval.
“I stand before this House to seek the abolition of the death penalty. The deliberation will be emotional,” Ziyambi told the acting Senate President. “Not of this or that other human being but as part of human beings whose crimes are such of a heinous nature that our society is called to legislate that they must die if found guilty by the court of law.”
“Almost all cultures in Zimbabwe have marked out certain crimes to be deserving of capital punishment. Our indigenous culture had less problems and messier than any foreign culture. The deserving of death has been perceived to be inhuman.
“Culturally and historically, before colonizers came to our country, we had no death penalty. In vernacular, we would say ‘Mushonga wengozi kuiripa, kwete kuuraya’.
“Our culture does not allow us to kill someone because they have murdered someone. In Shona we would say, ‘Ngozi inoripwa’. That is the point that I am trying to put across Mr. President.
“Can the death penalty actually deter crimes or not? Also, let us not forget that the death penalty is irreversible.”
Globally, 112 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and 142 are abolitionist in law or practice. In Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa abolished the death penalty long ago, while Rwanda abolished it in 2007 following the genocide.
