In City Press on 9 September 2019 an article by Mondli Makhanya appeared under their “Voices” columns entitled “The Death Penalty Debate is already Dead”.
The debate is most definitely not dead. How can it be when we are seeing the number and type of murders? Minister Ronald Lamola understands that. Common sense from all our communities (Makhanya describes them as a “mob”) shouts out that our South African criminal justice system without a death sentence after a fair trial and the right to appeal, is seriously and irresponsibly deficient.
The death penalty, a killing and murder are three completely different events. The death penalty follows arrest, investigation, a rigorous court process, including cross examination, pleas in mitigation, the right to appeal to a higher court and then to the State President. The murder victim is not granted those rights and privileges. To use the word “kill” to describe all three, is a careless even mischievous use of language.
Nonetheless, Makhanya’s input must be taken seriously and for two reasons. He is an eminent journalist and editor and has shown over two decades that he really cares about justice and integrity. In that sense he has lived up to his surname, which translated into English roughly means “shedding light”. Makhanya has helped to bring light into the dark places of life in our democratic dispensation.
The second reason is because of his own involvement as a participant in political violence on 11 February 1990. In an article published in the Weekly Mail in 1991 headlined “My Life as a Comrade” and written under the pseudonym of Oscar Gumede, Makhanya describes his involvement in an incident of political violence on 11 February 1990 when the ANC and IFP were at war. He could have been an accessory to murder. Murders and killing, in proven politically motivated violence, should be severely punished but not with a death sentence.
Nonetheless, with respect, Makhanya’s serious arguments around the death sentence, are not new. Sadly, he ignores, with skilful disdain, the crisis of governance around our type and number of murders. The incidence of pre-meditated murders and many that also are grossly violent, is staggeringly high. The assassinations, not only of politicians, but of business rivals, taxi bosses, spouses, as well as muti murders, are all planned carefully and for financial gain. The murders of so many Policemen is a plain and simple assault on the state. The killings in the gang wars in the Western Cape are a disgrace to our criminal justice system. The murders that seem to be a regular feature of strikes by COSATU aligned unions and AMCU are a planned and deliberate tactic. The violent rapes of women and children, often including the murder of the victims, as well as the violence and killing that is so often part of home invasions and vehicle hi-jackings are an outrage. A responsible nation and Government must address the issue.