PRESSURES for the reintroduction of the death penalty in South Africa continue to rise. With something of a campaign on the issue led by the National Party, The Star claims a survey it conducted shows that 93% of the population has joined the “hang ’em high” brigade – at least to the extent that they support a referendum on the issue.
Where the NP is concerned, its short- sightedness would be startling were it not for their track record of political myopia. The Constitutional Court has ruled that capital punishment is in conflict with the Constitution. It therefore requires a constitutional amendment to bring back the death penalty. The Bill of Rights contained in the Constitution – which precludes the death penalty – is there in large part to protect minority groups which the NP claims to champion. If the right to life is to be subject to amendment on the basis of a referendum, then why not other rights?
Popular – as opposed to NP – support for capital punishment is more difficult to deal with. The sense of rage in the population at the high levels of crime and the brutality of the perpetrators is shared by all South Africans other than the criminals themselves. Reasoned opposition to the death penalty is not founded on an aversion to tough action in dealing with crime. It is based on the belief that the government must give a lead in fostering the values of society and that the highest value is that of life.
The Eugene de Kock trial has given graphic evidence of how human life was devalued under Nationalist rule. It will not help to restore that value if the government of the day now busies itself breaking citizens’ necks. The African National Congress is to be much admired for its recognition of that fact and for its courageous stand on the issue in the face of popular opinion and the likes of The Star “survey”.
If it needs to defend itself, the ANC might do well to give consideration to the conversion of the section of Pretoria Central Prison known as “death row” into a museum of human rights abuses. It is a hideous place – a self-contained section which bears a repulsive resemblance to a hatchery. In one corner still stands the brick unit containing the gallows on which so many South Africans died – including some who gave their lives for the liberation of the majority population. The sheer mundanity of the structure gives concrete expression to the term “the banality of evil”. Death row is worth preserving as a monument to man’s inhumanity to man – to remind the country why it is worth encouraging an absolute taboo on the taking of human life.