Chipanga deplores capital punishment

MUTARE– ONE of Zimbabwe's most unsung word smith, social commentator, philosopher and self-proclaimed prophet, Apostle Hosiah Chipanga, could be heading on a collision course with the world's justice system after he sensationally accused sighted judges and magistrates of delivering flawed judgments that have allegedly left some plaintiffs seething with anger.

Apostle Chipanga recently made the sensational claims at his Dangamvura home in an exclusive interview with Choice Magazine's Penjeni Madzikangava.

The veteran preacher and singer who has in the past courted the ire of politicians due to his hard hitting and politically inclined satirical compositions, is religiously referred to as Mutumwa by his legion of followers of Messiah's Apostolic Prophetical Inspired People's Institution, MAPIPI whose motto is:Love, Truth and Wisdom.

The controversial Apostle Chipanga also took a swipe at nations that still upholds the death penalty arguing that capital punishment should be abolished and replaced with the gorging out of eyes of perpetrators.

"This is God's way of imparting and impacting justice in His Kingdom. According to God, justice should be blind for it to be fair and as such God's justice system can only be fair if it is presided over by those not sighted," said Apostle Chipanga.

"There is a lot of miscarriages of justice because the justice system is filled to the brim with fully sighted magistrates and judges.

"There is no way a sighted judge can deliver a partial judgment. Hundreds of people who were hauled before these earthly courts were left seething with anger and crying foul after presiding magistrates or judges handed downsome judgments that left a lot to be desired," said the Apostle

Apostle Chipanga said, times without number, some presiding magistrates or judges ended up delivering controversial sentences because their judgments might have been swayed or impaired withfacial looks of the plaintiffs and defendants.

"A blind magistrate or judge will not see by eyes but brain eyes and brain eyes read from the creator.

"If a magistrate or judge uses their mind, they will be seeing by the mind. If the world were to train the blind into lawyers and magistrates, they won't be any need for magistrates to recuse themselves", Apostle Chipanga said.

The Apostle philosophically said, "If one is born blind he is a king and if one loses sight he is poor.

"Any blind person is a king because they would need a servant or aide to show them around.

"A blind magistrate would always be above board since they would not be able to compare and contrast visually.

"To me blindness should never be taken as a handicap but a blessing and a prerequisite for anyone who wishes to train as a magistrate."

Apostle Chipanga said, magistrates and judges the world over would pass fairer judgments if they were to conduct court proceedings blind-folded.

The Apostle who singled out theft, rape and murder as the worst forms of sins, said crimes linked to these are mostly committed by the sighted.

"The reason why God is against capital punishment is that it inflicts pain on the family of those who would have been condemned to death.

"The condemned would never feel the pain because they would have died for only the dead know death because they would have experienced it.

"But if eyes were to be plucked out of the sockets of the condemned, they would feel the excruciating pain and that punishment would signal the end of their criminal careers," said Apostle Chipanga. He also added that, "If this God inspired form of punishment is inflicted on the condemned, it would be deterrent enough because would be criminals would have to think twice before committing a capital punishment related crime.

The desired deterrent effect that the death penalty has dismally failed to achieve, can be achieved by the gorging out of eyes, or forced blindness or blindness by choice," concluded Apostle Chipanga.