Of late, the debate regarding the death penalty has resurfaced.
This follows the unabated crime wave in the country, underlined by the recent crime stats that show that about 50 people are murdered daily on these shores.
In South Africa, back in 1995, the Constitutional Court abolished the death penalty, ending a decades-old practice of executing criminals convicted of serious crimes which had given the country one of the world’s highest rates of capital punishment.
In America, the home of ‘democracy’ (if that term even exists anymore), the death penalty is still legal in 31 states and illegal in 19 others.
The death penalty has been an ongoing debate over many years, with the argument that no one who commits a horrible crime deserved a second chance. This included, it seemed, crimes against children.
The recent incident at a restaurant in Pretoria, during which a girl (7) was raped in the bathroom over the weekend, in broad daylight, will most likely fuel the debate in the minds of many.
I’m sure there will be some who will say that no time behind bars will be punishment enough for the terrible trauma and pain afflicted on an innocent life.
And then there is the ongoing argument that the prisons are already overcrowded. Some might still frown upon sentences handed down to murderers and rapists.
Then again, if we live in a democracy, we then have to put our faith in the judicial system, otherwise we become a county where the rule of law is abolished for the sake of mob justice and tyranny.
In America, the rule of law prevailed when a judge in Pennsylvania jailed the US comedian Bill Cosby for three to 10 years for sexual assault. Cosby, 81, was also categorised as a sexually violent predator.
So where does this leave us with the death penalty?
The reality is that our government has no intention to budge on its decision of 1995. This is evident from the efforts made by correctional services, throughout the nation, to rehabilitate offenders and to reintegrate them back into society.
The Advertiser has now for many years written articles on the programmes run by the Boksburg Correctional Services to empower inmates with education, and with the necessary skills to be productive members of communities again.
Recently, during a graduation ceremony of inmates at the Boksburg prison, The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, urged employers not to close their doors when ex-offenders with relevant qualifications seek job opportunities at their companies.
On that day, a total of 127 offenders from various correctional centres in Gauteng graduated with various qualifications ranging from certificates to masters’ degrees from different institutions.
The Advertiser is also aware of a fully-fledged juvenile school that is now operational at the Boksburg premises (watch out for this story). So clearly, the government’s intention is to rather empower than to hang, or to flip the switch.
The debate over the death penalty really boils down to: a person deserves a second chance. There will be varying opinions on this subject, but personally, I believe so.
So many of those behind bars are themselves victims of abuse, trauma, hurt, pain, and so the saying goes that hurting people do hurt others. Some are behind bars because life handed them a rough deck of cards, others were driven by desperation to survive and others just made a bad choice a terrible decision.
Such actions can never be justified, no matter the crime, but let us remember there is always a story involved and a story that we do not know.
Life is really all about second chances. We have all made terrible decisions and wrong choices. Let us just be honest about it. For some of us – because of luck, grace or fate – we are fortunately not in prison.
In our democracy, we have to allow the rule of law to prevail, for in this country you have to believe there are still consequences to your actions – determined by the courts.
We also have to believe people can be remorseful of their deeds, no matter how terrible, and they can become better spiritually, emotionally or psychologically.
If we don’t, then we have lost all hope in humanity, and thus our own humanity becomes enslaved by the cruelty of our own fears and intolerances.
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