Mnangagwa signs death warrants

Following reports that Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa had told SADC Lawyers in Victoria Falls that he wouldn't sign the death warrants of 97 death row inmates because he does not "subscribe to the death penalty", the editor for Chronicle, Mduduzi Mathuthu, today said the minister has finally signed.

In a Facebook comment on Saturday, Mathuthu said "Justice Minister signs death warrants after clemency appeals with President exhausted."

Another commenter, Alex Magaisa, said "It has been known for many years that Mnangagwa is an opponent of the death penalty primarily because of his personal experience. But that this 'refusal' to sign the death warrants has been turned into news is either because the reporter has not done his research or its just part of the political grandstanding. Consider for example, that it is a fact that there has been no execution in Zimbabwe for the last 13 or so years. During that time, persons other than Mnangagwa held the office of Minister of Justice with the same responsibility to sign the death warrants and yet they did not. But was there ever any hullaballoo as to whether they had signed the death warrants or not? They just let it lie quietly. Chinamasa, who is on record as saying some offences deserve the death penalty was Justice Minister but he too did not sign those death warrants. The fact is Zimbabwe has not executed a prisoner on death row for about 13 years, the law notwithstanding and what Mnangagwa is doing is hardly unusual unless of course as I have suggested political grandstanding and image-building is at play for other purposes ..."