DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION BILL [H. B. 5, 2023]
HON. EDWIN MUSHORIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I do move for a Second Reading of this Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9:07(4) of the Genocide Act [Chapter 9:20]. The Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act [Chapter 9:23] and Section 3 of the Geneva Convention Act [Chapter 11:6] provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing. As you may be aware, what we intend to do is to make sure that we remove from our Statutes, the essence of sentencing people to death so that as a country, we move in the right direction.
Members may be aware as we did during our debate through the motion, the reasons that we forwarded in respect to us in terms of moving forward. We realise that even from a Biblical perspective, Cain was the first murderer when he murdered his brother, but God in his wisdom, did not say that because you have murdered Abel, you should also then die, he did not do that. We are also aware Madam Speaker that historically, in Zimbabwe, the question of death penalty has not been part of our culture. We have a restorative justice system. We are also aware Madam Speaker, that our national heroes and national heroines of the first Chimurenga and second Chimurenga faced this penalty. We lost Mbuya Nehanda because of the colonial masters who came and tried to use the death penalty as a means and mechanism to instill fear into the hearts of our people.
The current President Emmerson Mnangagwa is there today, thanks to a technicality and that talks to the need for us to remove this death penalty. Imagine, we would not be having President Mnangagwa as President of Zimbabwe today had he been hanged that time – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
Madam Speaker, the removal of the death penalty from our statutes is a move in the right direction. At this juncture Madam Speaker, I want to applaud the support that the Hon. Members of this august House, led by the Government Chief Whip, gave during the motion to introduce the Bill. More importantly, Madam Speaker, I also want applaud the Minister of Justice, legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Ziyambi Ziyambi and His Excellency and Cabinet for adopting the principles of this Bill so that we could actually move.
To that end Madam Speaker, I therefore move that this Bill be read a second time. I thank you. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
