Others see this as momentum for the abolitionist movement on the continent.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe President, Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law a bill on Tuesday. This will commute the sentences of prisoners on death row to jail time.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has joined more than two-thirds of the world\u2019s nations in abolishing the death penalty in law or practice.<\/p>\n
For those on death row, the news could not have come sooner.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe\u2019s Justice Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi says the abolishment is good for human rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain times that people are human and they make errors. There are times when somebody can actually be sentenced wrongly. Years later, you realise that the individual is not the one that committed the crime. So, imposing a death penalty would mean that you can\u2019t reverse what would have happened. We believe that this a very positive move,\u201d says Ziyambi.<\/p>\n
However, human rights defenders are worried about a provision that will allow for the reinstatement of the death penalty, when the state declares any public emergency in terms of Section 113 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
Executive Director for Amnesty International, Zimbabwe, Lucia Masuka says it is important for the government to repeal this provision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is important to highlight is that this sentence under the Defence Act applies to military officers and not necessarily civilians. As amnesty international, we have also highlighted our concern because as a human rights organisation our position is that we oppose the death penalty in all circumstances regardless of the nature of the offence, the individual concerned, the method of execution. So, our call has been for government to repeal this provision that provides for a suspension and a possibility of reinstatement during public emergencies,\u201d explains Masuka.<\/p>\n
Since coming into power in 2017 Zimbabwean President Mnangagwa has openly expressed his opposition to capital punishment.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe last carried out an execution in 2005.<\/p>\n
Currently, 24 African countries have fully abolished the death penalty.<\/p>\n
–SABC–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12090,"template":"default||default||default||default||default||default||default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-12089","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ||Human rights activists have hailed Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to formally abolish the death penalty as the most progressive human rights action since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013. ","published_date":"2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00||2025-10-03 00:00:00","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17872,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12089\/revisions\/17872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}