President Zuma must act now to stop Chinese execution 

It has come to the DA's attention that Janice Bronwyn Linden, a South African national convicted of drug smuggling in China, is due to be executed in that country tomorrow.

We call on President Zuma to make a last-ditch attempt to have her sentence commuted. Our government cannot stand idly by while one of our citizens is executed on foreign shores. 

Janice Linden was found guilty by a Chinese court in July 2009 of being in possession of 3kg of methamphetamine. She received the death penalty. Appeals to this sentence in both the High Court in Guangdong province and the Supreme Court in Beijing have failed.

At the time of her conviction, South African authorities said that they are "engaging" with the Chinese government to have the death sentence converted to a jail term.

It is clear that, whatever our diplomats have done, it has not been enough to save Ms. Linden's life. I shall be submitting parliamentary questions at the first available opportunity to ascertain precisely what steps the Department of International Relations and Co-operation took to persuade authorities in China to commute her death sentence.

Drug mules should be punished for what they do. But this is clearly a case of a punishment not fitting the crime.

A commitment to human rights is a guiding principle of South Africa's international relations. There has been little evidence of this commitment in our dealings with China of late. President Zuma's fear of upsetting China was the key reason for disallowing the Dalai Lama into our country. This time there is more than a visa at stake, it is somebody's life.

Our President must do the right thing and speak out before it's too late.

Statement issued by Stevens Mokgalapa MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of International Relations, December 11 2011

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