SA should change sentencing guidelines to ensure life means life

The sentencing this week of sex trafficker and child rapist Gerhard Ackerman to 12 terms of life imprisonment has – despite the apparent harsh nature of the sentence – reopened the debate on whether the death penalty is needed for such bestial crimes.

There are two issues which worry those who think this is a good case for bringing back capital punishment – something which is outlawed in our constitution.

Firstly, even a harsh sentence like the one handed down to Ackerman is unlikely to either reform him or deter others from committing similar offences. Jail time doesn’t seem a deterrent because this country has a high rate of repeat offenders.

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Apart from this recidivism, the other reality is that, in South Africa, we do not have sentencing guidelines as other countries do, which stipulate that life sentences are exactly that – without any possibility of parole.

And our parole system is clearly open to abuse – unless we accept that somebody like Schabir Shaik miraculously recovered from his life-threatening illness after being set free on parole in March 2009.

Proponents of a return to capital punishment will cite these factors in support of their argument that a death sentence will be a much more effective deterrent than our current “get out of jail free” parole system.

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However, against that is the fact that an execution is nothing more than legalised murder – and this country is trying to build a society on the blood of 300 years of colonialism and apartheid, where judicial killing was used to maintain the status quo.

The death penalty is also, if looked at in basic terms, an act of revenge and, while the families of victims may want this, is it up to society as a whole to sanction the killing of human beings?

We should rather change our sentencing guidelines to ensure life means life.

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