THE Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has called for the abolition of the death penalty from all Acts of Parliament, including the Defence Act.
In a report tabled before Parliament this week, the committee highlighted concerns about the discriminatory nature of the death penalty.
The committee said the death penalty should be replaced by long jail sentences or life imprisonment with hard labour and without an option for parole.
“Murder under aggravating circumstances, which was suitable for a death penalty or capital punishment, be given life imprisonment without an option for parole. Those on the death row should be resentenced to life imprisonment,” the committee said.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi also hailed legislators’ unity in introducing the Bill to abolish the death penalty.
“I think it is a second and a first to have a Bill that ordinarily must be sponsored by the Executive, to be first sponsored by a private member and have all the members in support,” he said.
“I believe that it lays groundwork for closer collaboration in terms of nation building, in terms of telling each other that when there are issues that pertain to building our nation, let us have eyes or lenses that are able to remove things that may be used by our detractors to allow us to fight each other and not focus on issues that will allow all of us to benefit.
“The Bill speaks to issues that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Cabinet must be able to answer and because of that, when I do my second reading speech, I will then take over because some of the responses, when we are debating, will require that I answer on behalf of the Executive.”
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He called on legislators to support the removal of sections in the statutes that allow the death penalty to be executed.
“It is not a sentence, it is a penalty, you just take away somebody’s life. I want to thank members from both sides for the unity that you have shown in this august House,” Ziyambi said.
Citizens Coalition for Change Dzivarasekwa legislator Edwin Mushoriwa raised the motion for the introduction of the Abolition of Death Penalty Bill in Parliament last year.
In February this year, Cabinet agreed to abolish the death penalty for murder offences, almost two decades after the last execution. Zimbabwe has been on a de facto moratorium on executions for about 17 years with the last having been conducted in 2005.
The Constitution maintains the death sentence, but excludes women, men under the age of 21 and men over the age of 70 from being sent to the gallows.
