10 June 2020 :
President Mnangagwa has reiterated his call for the abolition of capital punishment in Zimbabwe and has noted that a moratorium on executions has been in place since 2005.
He repeated his call in the foreword he wrote for a report titled; "Time to abolish the death penalty in Zimbabwe: exploring the views of its opinion leaders", which was launched virtually on 8 June 2020.
President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe has not executed any convict since 2005 and he hoped it would stayed that way.
"Most Zimbabweans know that the death penalty is a subject on which I feel deeply. As I have said in the past, I believe it to be a flagrant violation of the right to life and dignity," President Mnangagwa said.
The report is a compilation of findings from an opinion canvassing report by Veritas, a local legal non-profit organisation and The Death Penalty Project, an international organisation fighting for the abolition of capital punishment.
"The main finding indicates that 90% of those interviewed supported abolition of the death penalty," Veritas said in a statement. "On the opinion leaders trust of the justice system, 64% did not trust the criminal justice system to prevent miscarriage of justice, 79% believed wrongful convictions occur and 60% believed that innocent people have been sentenced to death."
The report also states that 90% of respondents saw the death penalty as an abuse of human rights or against their religious beliefs; 64% believed retention of the death penalty had damaged the country's international reputation, and 69% believed that the death penalty did not deter violent crime.
"I welcome this report, which shows that almost all Zimbabwean opinion formers are of the same mind in that they wish to see the death penalty abolished. This report, and the research on which it is based follows upon a wider survey conducted in 2017, which revealed that only a small majority of our citizens are in favour of keeping the death penalty, and that out of those who favour it, 80 percent will be prepared to go with abolition if the Government so decides," said President Mnangagwa.
"There has not been an execution in Zimbabwe since 2005. For nearly 15 years, therefore, we have had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty. It is my sincere hope, in the near future, Zimbabwe will formally abolish the death penalty by removing it from our statute books."
