ZANU PF legislator for Mhangura, Precious Masango yesterday raised a matter of privilege in the National Assembly over the recent gruesome murder of a seven-year-old Murewa boy Tapiwa Makore by his uncle and name-sake, for suspected ritual purposes.
Masango said as the world commemorates the Death Penalty
Day tomorrow, Zimbabweans should reconsider the abolition of the death penalty
taking into cognisance the spike in cases of child murders.
Parliament has been debating a motion which was moved by
recalled MDC Alliance MP Dorcas Sibanda on the abolition of the death penalty.
Sibanda argued that the death penalty was barbaric, does
not necessarily stop crime, and that death row prisoners experienced trauma as
they awaited execution.
Generally, the motion has generated debate among MPs, with
some who had their close relatives murdered, saying the death penalty should
stay.
“As we commemorate the Death Penalty Day on October 10, we
must also consider that it is not a secret that Tapiwa Makore was murdered and
the manner in which he was executed leaves women in tears,” Masango said.
“Today as a country, we are dumbfounded by the death of
Makore and my prayer is for justice to prevail.
“Those that killed Tapiwa have a right to life, but should
we commemorate the Death Penalty Day knowing that children are being murdered?
I think that these child murderers should be executed and we must reflect on
this as we commemorate the Death Penalty Day.”
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda said Justice
minister Ziyambi Ziyambi would inform the House on the measures to be taken by
the Executive to ensure that the death penalty is abolished.
“The President Emmerson Mnangagwa is averse to the death
penalty. You will need to move that the law be amended accordingly,” Mudenda
said.
But Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya said: “She is asking us
Zimbabweans to reflect our position over the death penalty and how we can
commemorate the day when there is a shadow of death of children in Murewa and
recently in Shamva and Zvimba.” Newsday
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