The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has pushed for the death penalty to be used in his country as punishment for criminals.
The 93 year old leader’s desire to have the capital punishment restored was necessitated by the interest from some Zimbabweans to fill up the vacant position of hangman.
Mugabe said in Harare that “I think let’s restore the death penalty,” as he spoke at the burial of an independence struggle hero in the country.
Zimbabwe has not used the capital punishment for years although the law remains on the country’s statute book.
The last hangman of the Southern African country retired in 2005.
But President Mugabe, has said that there appears to be an increase in crime rate recently with many of them being murders.
Mugabe is quoted as saying “People are playing with death by killing each other,” he said.
“Is this why we liberated this country? We want this country to be a peaceful and happy nation, not a country with people who kill each other.”
50 people have applied to occupy the hangman position in Zimbabwe, a country that is struggling to deal with high unemployment rate of more than 90 per cent.
Only men between the ages of 18 and 69 years can secure the position.
Rights group Amnesty International has campaigned for the death penalty to be removed from the statute book of Zimbabwe where 92 inmates are currently on death row.
Source: Africafeeds.com
