A big step closer to abolishing the death penalty in Zimbabwe?

“As someone who has been on death row myself and only saved by an ‘age technicality’, I believe that our justice delivery system must rid itself of this odious and obnoxious provision.”-- Zimbabwe’s Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon Emmerson Mnangagwa, Harare Gardens, 10 October 2013

I was thrilled when Zimbabwe’s new Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Emmerson Mnangagwa, agreed to speak at our World Day Against the Death Penalty event on 10 October. This day is one of the most important dates in our annual campaigning calendar, and this year Amnesty activists staged a lively march through the capital Harare, ending in Harare Gardens where the local press had gathered.

Condemning the death penalty

The event, ‘We say no to the death penalty’ was designed to contribute to a meaningful debate around public security and the death penalty, so I was even more thrilled when the Minister‘s address condemned the death penalty in strong terms.

Perhaps his words should not have surprised me. In the 1960s, during the war of liberation against a white minority government in what was then Rhodesia, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been part of that liberation struggle, was imprisoned for ‘terrorist’ activities. He was sentenced to death and only escaped the hangman’s noose because he was under the age of 21 at the time.

The 10 October events followed a truly exciting period in our campaign for abolition of the death penalty, during which Amnesty-Zimbabwe staff and activists have experienced many highs and lows.

A golden opportunity

We began 2013 in the final stages of Zimbabwe’s constitution-making process. When that process started in 2009 we saw it as a golden opportunity to end the blight of capital punishment by upping our anti-death penalty work. We organized many campaigning activities, ranging from installing huge billboards in Harare that declared that now was the time to abolish the death penalty, to lobbying members of parties across the political divide.

As the campaign gathered pace, the possibility of ending capital punishment was placed firmly on the agenda, and we felt optimistic as we saw just how much support there is for abolition in Zimbabwe.

A hangman being appointed

But then in February of this year we were shocked by the news that a hangman had been appointed. The post had been vacant since the last execution in 2005. We feared this might signify a step backwards in our campaign, although the Justice Minister did subsequently say that the appointment was a ‘legal requirement’, not an indication that executions would resume. Still, we remain concerned for the fate of the 89 people currently on death row in Zimbabwe.

The new Constitution, enacted in May, brought good and bad news. I was disappointed to see the death penalty retained, but at least its legal scope was reduced. The crimes punishable by death were limited to one – murder “committed in aggravating circumstances” – and mandatory death sentences were outlawed. Women can no longer be sentenced to death, nor can men aged under 21 at the time of the crime or who are over 70. It wasn’t the full removal of the death penalty we had hoped and pushed for, but it was progress – and some reward for all our hard work.

A real chance of abolition

Emmerson Mnangagwa’s speech on 10 October has given us renewed belief that we can achieve our goal. We think there is a real chance that before too long we will be celebrating abolition of the death penalty in Zimbabwe. We’ll certainly be intensifying our work to make sure that happens, so that our country protects everyone’s right to life.

Source: Livewire, Amnesty International blog, November 13, 2013

Zimbabwe hangman raises execution fears

Harare, Zimbabwe - In Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, there are 77 convicts who have been condemned to death by hanging.

Held in solitary confinement in cells close to the gallows, some of those condemned to death have been there for more than a decade, their appeals rejected by President Robert Mugabe.

Although the death penalty is still on the books in Zimbabwe, there have been no executions since 2004, in part because there was no hangman.

But a macabre development could potentially activate the dormant penalty. Years of unsuccessful headhunting by the country’s Justice and Legal Affairs ended last September with a sombre announcement by Justice and Legal Affairs secretary David Mangota: the government had secured a hangman who was "raring to go".

Little is known of the hangman, who is rumoured to be from Malawi. Authorities have refused to clear any interviews with him.

The announcement came as a surprise, given the ambivalence within the Zimbabwean criminal justice system about executions. Although capital punishment was codified during British rule, which ended in 1980, evolving jurisprudence and new sensitivities within Zimbabwe have limited the actual practice to the barest minimum.

The recruitment has sharply divided the government - formed between President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, who is now prime minister.

The Justice and Legal Affairs ministry is a shared portfolio: minister Chinamasa belongs to Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and his deputy Obert Gutu is a member of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Chinamasa says in a country with high levels of violence and regular reports of grisly rapes and murders, the perpetrators of such crimes are "worthy" of death sentences.

However, his deputy Gutu is staunchly opposed to the recruitment.

"It's bizarre and odious in the extreme," the deputy minister said. "Whoever sanctioned the hiring of a hangman at this juncture of Zimbabwe's jurisprudential history is obviously of unsound mind. For how else can you describe such an absurd decision to engage the services of a hangman when the draft constitution has made it quite apparent that the death penalty is on its way out?

Gutu added that there will not be any executions taking place in the near future.

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Source: Aljazeera, March 30, 2013

Zimbabwe: 'No Plans to Hang Death Row Inmates'

ZIMBABWE Prison Services (ZPS) deputy commissioner Agrey Machingauta said there are no plans to carry out any executions in the country and the ZPS hopes all 77 death row inmates get a reprieve.

Zimbabwe recently hired a hangman raising speculation that the country could be resuming executions, but Machingauta assured a ZPS stakeholders conference at Harare Central Prison a fortnight ago that no executions would be carried out "anytime soon".

Zimbabwe currently has 77 inmates on death row, including 2 females.

"We have not carried executions for the past 12 years so we are in no hurry," said Machingauta. "We actually hope that the 77 inmates will get their reprieve. We also stand guided by what Minister (of Justice Patrick) Chinamasa said that all death row cases will be decided by cabinet."

About 78 people have been executed in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

The last executions were carried out on June 13 2003, when Stephen Chidhumo, Elias Chauke, William Mukurugunye and John Nyamazana were hanged.

The 4 had been convicted of murder without extenuating circumstances and their execution took place without any warning to their families.

Chinamasa recently said the appointment of a new hangman does not mean any of the death row inmates would be executed and government would instead push for the sentences to be commuted to life in prison.

The hangman's job had been vacant and government had been struggling to find a replacement since the previous one retired in 2005 despite repeated adverts in the local press.

The draft constitution that would be tested in a referendum on March 16 retains the death penalty, but prohibits executions of women and anyone under the age of 21 years or over the age of 70 years.

ZPS commissioner retired Major-General Paradzai Zimondi said prisons were holding 16 902 inmates.

He said only 587 of these were women and 124 were juveniles.

Source: All Africa News, March 1, 2013

Stepping Back From Capital Punishment

In December, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a global moratorium on the death penalty. This fourth such vote in five years was supported by a record 111 nations.

Yet in the first month of 2013, Saudi Arabia beheaded nine people. In recent weeks, Yemen has sentenced a juvenile offender to death, fueling hunger strikes by scores of imprisoned children. Iran has reportedly begun imposing death sentences for petty criminals accused of robbery.

Elsewhere, a court in Indonesia, where there have been no state executions since 2008, sentenced a British grandmother to death for drug trafficking — reportedly to gasps of disbelief in the courtroom. Zimbabwe has hired a hangman after seven years of searching, while Sri Lanka, which has not carried out an execution since 1976, has reportedly recruited two executioners who are undergoing special training.

In the United States, the trend is toward fewer executions and death sentences, with more states repealing the death penalty. Nevertheless, in 2012 there were 43 executions and 77 death sentences.

Such developments make for grim reading. However, we at the International Commission against the Death Penalty — an independent body opposed to capital punishment in all cases — remain hopeful. It is clear that the world is becoming an increasingly lonely place for states that practice executions.

Much remains to be done, not least because a handful of states remain willing to risk international outrage, controversy and isolation by persisting with this cruel, inhuman and degrading practice. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen — all in the global spotlight in recent weeks — are accompanied by China, Iraq, North Korea and the United States as the world’s most prolific executioners year on year.        

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Source: The New York Times, Feb. 20, 2013

Zimbabwe hangman vacancy filled after 7 years

HARARE (Feb 2, 2013): Zimbabwe has finally hired a hangman after seven years of searching, but he has not yet executed any of the 76 people on death row, a top prisons official has said.

"Indeed, we now have a hangman," Prison Service Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi was quoted as saying in Saturday's edition of The Herald, Zimbabwe's state-controlled daily.

The post was filled last year by a candidate the paper speculated was of Malawian origin. The previous executioner retired in 2005. The government had repeatedly advertised the job in the press, but it took a long time to find takers.

Of the 16,902 criminals being held in Zimbabwe's jails, 76 of them are awaiting the hangman's noose, Zimondi said.

"These people are still to be executed. In fact no one has been executed in the past 12 years," he said.

Some death row inmates were convicted more than 14 years ago but were still appealing their cases when the previous hangman retired. Two death row prisoners are women, who may be spared the noose if a new constitution is adopted in a referendum sometime this year.

Zimbabwe's new draft constitution exempts women and anyone under 21 or above 70 from the death penalty.

Source: Agence France-Presse, February 2, 2013

Zimbabwe to scrap death penalty... for women

The final draft constitution spares female murderers from the hangman’s noose as it states that no woman shall face the death penalty.

The draft, completed on Wednesday, partially abolishes the death penalty with the exception being in “cases of aggravated murder”.

It also abolishes the death penalty for those under 21 years of age and those above 70.

Human rights activists and organisations, including Amnesty International have been lobbying government to abolish capital punishment and the exemption of women appears to be a compromise to appease the activists.

Section 4.5 of the new constitution reads in part: “A law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating circumstances, and the penalty must not be imposed or carried out on a woman.”

But a person sentenced to death will have the right to seek pardon.

The courts will have the discretion over whether or not to impose the penalty.

Abortion remains illegal unless if the pregnancy is terminated in accordance with the law.

Fred Misi, the national chairperson of Varume Svinurai, a men’s representative organisation, said it was unfair for the new constitution to protect women only from the death penalty.

“I think it’s not fair,” he said.

“We are saying all human beings are equal before the law but if you then say a woman who commits murder will be protected and a man who commits murder is hanged, then there is no equality.

“Obviously it’s not fair.

“We were trying to eliminate discrimination against men and women but once you separate the 2, there will be discrimination.”

Source: New Zimbabwe, July 22, 2012

UK wants 'reinvigorated' Commonwealth, end to discrimination against gays and scrapping of the death penalty

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday called for an end to discrimination against gays and the scrapping of the death penalty as he urged the Commonwealth to embrace reform.

Calling on the assembled leaders to heed the "clarion call" for reform, Hague said the 54-member Commonwealth grouping should act as a greater force for democracy and prosperity and speak out on pressing social issues.

"It is the view of the United Kingdom that the next days can and should be defining ones for the Commonwealth," he told a people's forum in Perth, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to begin on Friday.

Speaking at a meeting of Commonwealth leaders, he said the group tasked with developing options to reform the bloc - an Eminent Persons Group commissioned in 2009 - had found a need for change.

"And their clarion call for reform is one we should not ignore, whatever the precise details of what we agree to do," he said.

"The case for reinvigorating the Commonwealth is abundantly clear and Britain whole-heartedly supports the recommendations of the Eminent Persons Group.

"In particular, we welcome their focus on promoting the values of the Commonwealth."

Hague said as problems became increasingly global - from financial crisis to climate change - the Commonwealth was the "ultimate network".

Yet while the organisation had taken strong action on human rights in the past, expelling apartheid South Africa from its ranks, it had not reacted as quickly to more recent problems.

Key challenges

"In recent years it has sometimes shied away from key challenges and has not always spoken out as clearly and decisively as it could have done, failing for example to take action on the human rights situations in Zimbabwe or Fiji before they became extreme."

Hague said Britain wanted to see the Commonwealth strengthening its role as "a standard bearer for human rights and democracy".

He said this meant Britain favoured the Eminent Persons Group's recommendation for a charter for the Commonwealth, and supported the push for a Commonwealth commissioner for democracy, rule of law and human rights.

But re-emphasising values should not involve "one group of countries lecturing" others, but learning from each other to raise standards, he said.

"The United Kingdom for instance would like to see the Commonwealth do more to promote the rights of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens," he said.

"It is wrong, in our view in Britain, that these groups continue to suffer persecution, violence and discrimination within the Commonwealth. And that many members have laws criminalising homosexuality.

"Britain also wants to see the death penalty abolished throughout the Commonwealth."

Old British Empire laws against gays are still in force in 41 of the 54 member nations. These include statutes against homosexual sex.

Source: Agence France-Presse, October 27, 2011

'Scrap death penalty in Zimbabwe'

Zimbabwean legal experts and some religious leaders have called for the scrapping of the death penalty.

This comes at a time when 55 murderers, one of whom was convicted 13-years-ago, are in prison awaiting execution, Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on Thursday.

Acting Secretary for Justice and Legal Affairs Maxwell Ranga said relevant documents for the execution of the murderers had been sent to Cabinet for approval, but Cabinet was yet to act on them.

Ranga suggested that Cabinet could be waiting for the completion of the constitution-making process before acting on the papers.

Addressing a court-reporting workshop in Harare, former Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele described the death penalty as irrational and extreme and should be scrapped.

"In Zimbabwe, we should do away with that kind of sentencing. At least life imprisonment would be reasonable. The penalty is imposed by human beings who also make mistakes. In a case of wrong conviction, one is executed and even if the truth is later discovered, the penalty cannot be reversed."

Constitutional lawyer and chairman of the Department of Public Law at the University of Zimbabwe Professor Lovemore Madhuku, described the death penalty as an old method of punishment that failed to deter would-be murderers.

The Roman Catholic Church condemned the death penalty, saying it was against their teachings.

Secretary-general for the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Council, Fredrick Chiromba, said: "As the Catholic Church, we respect human life as sacred. Life is in God's hands and no one can determine someone's death."

It was suggested that the death penalty be replaced with life imprisonment.

Source: Times Online, August 4, 2011

Death penalty on trial as Zimbabweans snub hangman job

For over 4 years now, Tendai Dzingirai has lived each day afraid that it may be his last.

Dzingirai is one of almost 60 inmates on death row in Zimbabwe’s prisons.

But like the other prisoners, Dzingirai does not know when he will finally meet his fate, especially since the country has not had an executioner for the last 6 years.

Since 2005, when the country’s last hangman retired, there has been a moratorium on executions as the country is still searching for a replacement.

“For this matter we are waiting for a proper directive from cabinet. There is currently a moratorium on the death penalty since the matter is before cabinet,” said the country’s deputy minister of justice Obert Gutu.

And it may be a long time before one is found as Zimbabweans shun the job because of superstition and cultural reasons.

According to Gutu, Zimbabweans mostly look down on the hangman’s job since it entails the “murdering” of people, which most locals believe brings “evil spirits to the hangman and his family."

“In the African culture, a job that entails the killing of another human being is not considered a job at all.

It is looked at with contempt and superstition, mostly because as Africans we believe that if one kills another human being the spirit of that person will return to torment its killer and his family."

He added that a majority of Zimbabweans, like himself, did not believe in the death penalty.

“To the best of my knowledge I am not sure when (a hangman) will be engaged. I do not know whether the process is in motion, but I know there is currently no hangman. Ordinary Zimbabweans are not comfortable with the death penalty."

Gutu is critical of the death penalty, describing it as a primitive and inhumane form of punishment that should not be on the statute books of any civilised and progressive country.

“My own suggestion is that all people on death row should have their sentences immediately commuted to life imprisonment. It is psychologically traumatic and inhumane to keep people on death row perpetually,” Gutu said.

Gutu said his ministry has been advertising the job since 2005 and not many people have expressed an interest in applying.

Like any other civil service job, the monthly salary is pegged at around a paltry US$300.

The job is reserved for men only and the identity of the person will remain a closely guarded secret.

In one of the advertisements by the ministry of justice, requirements for the job include dexterity in tying a knot and a cold-hearted person.

Anyone prone to mercy or hesitation is instructed not to apply.

The hangman will be stationed at the Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare and is warned that his work will have no routine.

On any given day, he could be required to execute between 2 to 4 prisoners. But months and even years could pass before another hanging.

“It is not a job one can openly talk about, it is a gory job only those deemed evil and cursed can ever want to do. Culturally, people shun the spilling of human blood, whether the victim is guilty or innocent,” Gutu said.

Pedzisai Ruhanya, a human rights academic and programmes manager for Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe, said the country had to do away with the death penalty.

“If the state does not allow citizens to kill each other, so what right does the state have to kill its people? The death penalty is outdated ."

Ruhanya paid tribute to Zimbabweans for shunning the hangman’s job adding that it was a deplorable job no man should do.

“Only the devil himself can do that job, not a normal human being. After all, the hangman is paid peanuts like the rest of civil servants. Is US$300 (a month) enough for one to kill people for? Never. Zimbabweans should refuse to take up this job."

Zimbabwe’s last hangman is said to be struggling with his conscience and claims to have regretted his job.

Many Zimbabweans interviewed said they could not imagine doing the job.

Petros Kamujarira, who earns a living repairing shoes, said he preferred to die poor rather than be employed as an executioner.

“In my family, there has never been a murderer, so why should I be the first one to bring evil spirits into the family? Never will I ever do it. It is against the Lord and our spirit mediums. Even if you have the blessings of the country’s laws, it is still wrong and it will bring bad luck into the family,” he said.

"I am not so sure if I want to have such a job which only entails killing people. What would my wife, children and relatives think of me knowing that when I leave home daily for work I will be going to kill someone else’s mother, father, brother or sister?” said John Mapapu, who earns a living as a vegetable vendor in one of Harare’s high density suburbs.

Reverend Julius Zimbudzana from the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe said Zimbabweans were God-fearing people and that explained why the position was still vacant.

Source: New Zimbabwe, July 8, 2011

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In Africa, homosexuality emerging as hot-button issue

In Kenya, Prime Minister Raila Odinga recently told supporters in the Nairobi slum of Kibera that he would order police to arrest gays. In Uganda and Malawi, debate is rising over the legality of homosexuality.

Long seen as a fringe societal taboo far from the realm of African politics, homosexuality is emerging as a hot-button issue throughout much of the continent. Kenya, East Africa's economic hub, joined the trend in late November when Prime Minister Raila Odinga told supporters in the Nairobi slum of Kibera that he would order police to arrest gays.

"We will not tolerate such behavior in the country. The Constitution is very clear on this issue, and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared," Mr. Odinga said in Swahili, in comments that were taped by several news organizations. "Any man found engaging in sexual activities with another man should be arrested. Even women found engaging in sexual activities will be arrested."

The statement -- which brought cheers in the Kibera slum -- has created a sharp divide between Christian conservatives, who argue that homosexuality is against religious laws and "the law of nature," and human rights activists, who argue that stigmatizing any minority is illegal. It serves as the latest example of an outlook driven by the growing political assertiveness of powerful Christian churches that bolster existing social stigmas against gays.

"Normally, we judge a country's development by its tolerance of minorities," says Njeri Kabeberi, executive director of the Center for Multiparty Democracy in Nairobi. "We've seen this same issue come up in Uganda, in Zimbabwe, in Malawi, where gays are assaulted, arrested, jailed. Anything like that, the prime minister should condemn, but instead, he's encouraging it."

Ms. Kabeberi encouraged the prime minister to retract his statement, if only because Kenya's newly enacted Constitution does not, in fact, make homosexuality illegal. (Kenyan law merely states that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman.)

If the statement was Odinga's attempt to become popular with Kenya's powerful churches, she adds, "the wrath of the civil society is going to make him wish he wasn't popular on this issue. He should be urging Kenyans to be tolerant, instead of himself being intolerant."

While recordings of Odinga's speech have been made public online, Odinga's spokesman Dennis Onyango issued a statement saying that Odinga was misquoted.

Odinga said he intended to clarify that the Constitution was not, as alleged by opponents, going to legalize same-sex marriages.

Yet even this statement stops short of retracting the statement attributed to Odinga of calling for the arrest of gays.

A regional trend

In Uganda, where homosexuality is already illegal under British colonial-era laws, the parliament briefly debated and then withdrew a proposed bill that would have imposed lengthy sentences, and in some cases the death penalty, for homosexuals.

In Malawi, an openly gay couple was convicted in May under a colonial-era law banning "unnatural acts" and sentenced to 14 years in prison, before international pressure prompted the government to set the sentences aside.

And in Kenya, as the country prepared to vote last summer in a referendum to establish the new Constitution -- an attempt to prevent a return of the leadership crisis that followed ethnic clashes after the December 2007 elections -- it was conservative Kenyan churches (urged on by the Pat Robertson-funded American Center for Law and Justice) who opposed the Constitution, arguing incorrectly that the new Constitution would have legalized abortion and same-sex marriages.

Converging reasons

Wanyeki Muthoni, executive director of the independent Kenya Human Rights Commission, says that the tumult over homosexuality is the result of three converging trends.

First, Kenyan gays are becoming more politically active and vocal, lobbying hard for "basic equality and nondiscrimination." Second, the global debate over the ordination of gay priests, increasingly accepted in Europe and the United States, has caused a conservative backlash here in Africa, with African churches largely rejecting those reforms. Finally, African churches have been radicalized by what Ms. Muthoni charges is "the ever-increasing influence of homophobic American Evangelicals in Africa."

For Kenyan gays, Odinga's statement means tough times ahead.

"Harassment has been going on. Yesterday, two people were arrested by cops for homosexuality; three people were arrested the day before, but they managed to get out of jail," says Zawadi Nyongo, an independent social justice activist. "I have been receiving hate mail myself, through e-mail, and I'm not even on the front lines."

"We're all baffled by this," she adds. "How can a government that is trying to help people to get tested for HIV and to seek treatment, how can thatsame government talk about arresting gays?"

Source: Christian Science Monitor, December 9, 2010

US hopes Malawi gay pardon sends message 'around the globe'

Washington - The White House Saturday said it was "pleased" to hear that a gay couple in Malawi had been pardoned from a long prison sentence and hoped the decision would open new dialogue and send a global message.

In a statement, the White House press secretary was reacting to the decision by Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika to grant the pardon, which came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited the country.

The couple, Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, (pictured) had been sentenced to 14 years in prison after they openly celebrated their engagement. Homosexual acts are banned in the southern African country.

"We hope that President Mutharika's pardon marks the beginning of a new dialogue which reflects the country's history of tolerance and a new day for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Malawi and around the globe," the White House said.

The White House called for a renewed commitment to "ending the persecution and criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity."

Malawian's views on homosexuality are shared by many people in Africa, where gays suffer widespread discrimination, repression and, sometimes, violence.

The parliament of the central African nation of Uganda, where homosexuality is already prohibited, is considering a bill that would increase the penalties for homosexual acts from 14 years in jail to life, or even the death penalty, for some acts.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has described gays as "worse than dogs and pigs."

Source: EarthTimes, May 29, 2010

On Zimbabwe's death row without a lawyer

After 13 years on Zimbabwe's death row, George Manyonga is still waiting to see his lawyer.

He saw him once, briefly, the day before his trial, but since then he has been left on his own.

He has lost his lawyer and now he is losing hope.

"I'm paying a price for something I never committed," Manyonga says.

"If I had a lawyer throughout my trial, the judge would have understood my concerns and acquitted me."

Manyonga's main concern during his trial in 1997 on charges of killing a security guard during a robbery was that a crucial piece of evidence - his identity card which was allegedly found at the scene of the crime - was never produced in court.

"After conviction I prepared on my own my appeal papers," he remembers.

"I tried to have a number of issues clarified, but no-one heard me."

It seems that being heard these days in Zimbabwe's courts is a privilege of the rich.

'Wish-washy' approach

In theory, Zimbabwe does offer free legal representation to the poor.

But in practise, the country's economic problems have left the Legal Aid Clinic desperately short of money - and the poor desperately short on confidence that Zimbabwean justice can ever work for them.

Zimbabwe hanged its last convict in 2004

"Yes, there have been complaints. Yes, there are still complaints that the service is poor," admits Charles Nyatanga, registrar at the High Court of Zimbabwe in the capital, Harare.

"There is a danger of a wish-washy approach which results in them [lawyers] rendering poor quality service to the persons deserving legal representation."

And there seem to be few more deserving than Manyonga.

During his several years waiting for death, he speaks of festering for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement with a plastic bag for a toilet.

"My genitals bear the scars of torture," he claims.

Brian Crozier, legal ethics lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe Law School, believes lawyers have a duty of care to clients such as Manyonga.

"Lawyers have a monopoly over representing people in court and they cannot use that monopoly merely to make money," he says.

"They must provide the best possible defence they can, particularly if the person they are representing is facing the death penalty."

There are currently 50 such people in Harare - and the last person to be hanged in Zimbabwe was in 2004.

But what can be done to help them if they have no money?

Zimbabwe's Attorney General Johannes Tomana acknowledges the poor are losing out, but believes lawyers are not necessarily philanthropists who enjoy giving their services for free.

"The world we live in today, we got soldiers of fortune, people who perform for pay, people who perform because they want to get rewarded for it equitably," he says.

Manyonga's dreams of being treated equitably ended some time ago.

And so might his life if he cannot get another lawyer soon.

Source: BBC News, May 12, 2010

Ugandan MP to be banned from UK if his gay death penalty bill succeeds

David Bahati wants to execute consenting same-sex couples, arguing it is a crime they choose to commit.

The British government will ban a Ugandan MP from travelling to the UK if he is successful in passing a law that would impose the death penalty in Uganda for being gay.

Civil servants in the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Borders Agency are drawing up plans to block the visa of born-again Christian MP David Bahati if he does not drop legislation that would see consenting adults who have gay sex imprisoned for life and impose the death penalty on those with HIV which will be called "aggravated homosexuality".

The bill also proposes the death penalty for those having gay sex with anyone under the age of 18, with someone disabled or what the legislation describes as "serial offenders".

It also calls for life prison sentences for those "promoting homosexuality", which could come to mean human rights groups or those who fail to inform on a gay couple.

One senior British government source said the issue could turn into a "major diplomatic incident if the Ugandans do not back down". President Barack Obama has already described the legislation as odious.

The British government's views have been conveyed to Uganda but officials have not received a clear sense of whether the legislature will pass the bill into law.

Ugandan government officials appear to be using stalling tactics, suggesting it will not come to a vote until 2011, deflecting pressure from a government that could change in the forthcoming general election.

Bahati submitted a private member's bill to the Ugandan parliament last year arguing that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice.

Gay sex is already illegal in Uganda but backbenchers there are pushing for more draconian punishment by preying on fears that homosexuals are "recruiting" children at schools.

Though observers believe President Yoweri Museveni was beaten back by the level of international opprobrium, a march against homosexuality in Uganda last month attracted 2,000 supporters.

The British government is concerned by a wave of anti-gay sentiment sweeping Africa that has also put pressure on homosexual people in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria.

Besides rescinding the visa of the backbencher, other options considered have been blocking aid to the Ugandan government. The government has switched its strategy to individual visa blocking amidst signs that threats to withhold aid backfire.

Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe, chairman of the Malawi Council of Churches, has accused western donors of trying to use aid as a bait to force Malawi to legalise homosexuality.

British officials have already rescinded the visas of those involved in the Kenyan election riots and members of the Zimbabwean government.

Source: The Guardian, April 19, 2010

Zimbabwe desperate for a hangman

Zimbabwe is searching for a hangman. Chikurubi prison, a maximum security facility outside Harare, has been trying to fill the post for five years, but in vain, the Daily News of Zimbabwe reported.

The absence of an executioner is a mixed blessing for 50 condemned men. It is a reprieve, but it is also an agonising and indefinite wait on death row in a jail dubbed a "gulag" because of its inhumane conditions.

Zimbabwe's last hangman quit the post in 2005 after hanging two armed robbers who murdered a prison guard while escaping jail. The job has since remained unfilled, despite unemployment in the country hitting 94% last year.

The Daily News set out the requirements for any would-be Albert Pierrepoint: "Prison officials say the job of a hangman involves techniques and procedures that are very simple to learn. The candidate for the job need not possess any previous experience, neither does he have to be literate. The hangman's job is reserved only for men. The job demands strength and unwavering focus. It is not for the faint-hearted.

"If a hangman is found, jail officials would teach him how to tie the noose and train him to maintain the correct posture while executing, as this is vital (sic)."

It added: "But it appears the toughest part of the job is not about ropes and levers. It is about conscience.

"A hangman should never have second thoughts, if he does he should be retired," said a former principal prison officer, who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity.

Lawyers and journalists based in Harare confirmed with the Guardian that the prison has been struggling to find a hangman for years. "We've not had an execution for a long time," one said.

Some death row inmates have languished in solitary confinement for more than a decade. Their petitions for clemency have been rejected by Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president.

About 70 people are believed to have been executed since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980.

Sources: The Guardian, Daily News, Hands Off Cain, April 13, 2010

Zimbabwe: Supreme Court to hear "unusual" challenge to death penalty

A death row prisoner has filed a landmark case with the Supreme Court claiming his impending execution is a breach of his right to life.

"I verily believe that the imposition of the death penalty is an arbitrary deprivation of life in contravention of Section 12 of the Zimbabwean Constitution," said Shepherd Mazango, who confessed to the murder of a Marondera farmer in 2002.

"Life is sacrosanct and should not be taken away even when a person is convicted of murder. The 'justice' of 'an eye for an eye and 'a tooth for a tooth' is not acceptable in a democratic society and offends human rights ...," he added.

Zimbabwe currently has 50 death-row prisoners awaiting execution by hanging. 3 of the prisoners -- George Manyonga, James Dube and Bright Gwashinga -- have spent more than a decade waiting for their sentences to be carried out.

In his affidavit, Mazango said delays in the carrying out of sentences, and the lack of information on when he may be hanged, made him "anxious everyday."

"God knows when I'm going to be executed ... It is traumatising," he said.

In the only statistics made public, Zimbabwe, 1 of at least 100 countries which retain the death penalty, executed 76 male prisoners between 1980 and 2001. All of those executed were murderers, although other crimes, including treason, can also attract the same sentence.

In 1993, Zimbabwe's parliament passed amendments to the constitution essentially stating that a death sentence cannot be shelved because it breached Section 15 of the Constitution.

Mazango says the amendments should be struck off because "they have the effect of taking away the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment."

In his lengthy affidavit, Mazango says his execution will rob him of "all other rights guaranteed by the Constitution."

He adds: "Punishment should be humane and should accord with human rights standards. I still hold rights irrespective of the fact that I have been convicted of murder." "The few blankets that are there are tattered and I am usually cold the whole night. There is no toilet in the cell," he says. "I use a 5-litre container that is kept in my room the whole day and night.

Source: New Zimbabwe News, April 6, 2010