South Africa to discuss new criminal laws and reintroducing death penalty
Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, says an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been set up to look at how the criminal justice system can be more ‘victim-centric’.
Speaking at an event on Tuesday (3 September), Nkoana-Mashabane said that the IMC would, as part of their review of the Sexual Offences Act, look at increasing the foot print of sexual offences courts across the country, as well as amending the Criminal Procedure Act to ensure that persons who allege that they are sexually violated are not re-violated.
“This committee will provide a briefing on what is being done to ensure that an efficient victim centred response is implemented.
“We collectively are calling for all service delivery points within the value chain of the criminal justice system to exhibit speed, sensitivity and responsive attitudes to reduce, and ultimately eradicate secondary victimisation,” she said.
At the same event, justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola said that the question of whether South Africa could reinstate the death penalty will be taken to cabinet for further discussion.
“Whether we are open to referendum or not, at this stage I cannot say. It is something we can take further as a discussion to the cabinet,” he said.
Change in stance?
Earlier in 2019, president Cyril Ramaphosa answered voters’ questions ahead of the National Elections, one of which questioned the plausibility of the death penalty being reinstated to combat high levels of crime in South Africa.
The president said quite plainly that it is not the state’s place to take life.
“Our constitution has enshrined the right to life. This means that the state should not be the one to terminate a life. The surge in criminality should be addressed in other ways rather than ending people’s lives,” Ramaphosa said.
This sentiment has been expressed by many Constitutional law experts, who say that the state acts on behalf of the people, and by perpetrating brutal acts such as capital punishment, the entire country is implicated in that.
“To endorse the death penalty is to endorse state violence and the brutality that necessarily forms part of premeditating killing,” said Constitutional law expert, Pierre De Vos. “The death penalty thus brutalises the whole of society and implicates us all in the kind of violence that we wish perpetrators to be punished for.”
Read: South Africans are calling for the death penalty to be reinstated – here’s what government says
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