Emmerson Mnangagwa

ZIMBABWE: MINISTER OF JUSTICE SAYS WON’T SIGN DEATH WARRANTS

August 22, 2014: the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said the 97 inmates, including a woman, on Zimbabwe’s death row owe their continued survival to him because he is against the death penalty.
The country’s new Constitution, adopted in March 2013, abolishes the death penalty for women and for the under 21s and over 70s.
“I have just not been giving my signature for them to be executed. I have, since becoming Minister of Justice, fought against this sentence and lost the first time by three votes in parliament, then I have made some ground and those under 21 years of age and those above 70 have been spared the death sentence,” Mnangagwa said to an applause from the more than 600 lawyers that converged in Victoria Falls for the 15^th SADC lawyers annual conference.
SADC lawyers’ theme for their conference this year is: Strengthening the Rule of Law and Good Governance in the SADC Region: A Call for Transparent and Accountable Leadership Against the Death Penalty.
Mnangagwa, who survived the death penalty during colonial rule for sabotage on a technicality that he was below 21, brought lighter moments to an otherwise serious presentation he was delivering when he said he would technically survive the gallows again because he was now above 70 years of age. He told the delegates that he was now waiting for parliament and other stakeholders to come up with aggravating facts necessary for any death penalty to be executed. Where a person is above 21 years of age and below 70 and has been sentenced to death, the courts had to establish aggravating facts that would result in the convict being hanged. (Sources: thezimmail.co.zw, 23/08/2014)