Two women are among the applicants for the vacant post of public executioner with the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS).
The majority of applicants who expressed interest in taking up the job of an executioner in the past were mainly males, with two females throwing their names in the hat, The Sunday Mail reported quoting Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Permanent Secretary, Mrs Virginia Mabiza. She said:
In the past, we have been overwhelmed with applications for the post of hangman, but, because of the de facto moratorium that we have had for more than a decade, it has not been necessary to employ anyone. At the moment, it (the hangman’s post) is not an issue because the real discussion is centred around the abolition of the death penalty.
Mrs Mabiza added that ideally, the post should not be a full-time job for “obvious reasons”.
While the death penalty is still legal, the country has not carried out executions since the hanging of Stephen Chidhumo and Edgar Masendeke in July 2005.
Sixty-six inmates are presently on death row.
Murewa-born Benard Chiwenga (71), who was convicted of murdering a woman in 2015, said the uncertainty of when he will appear before the hangman was affecting his sanity. He said:
I can’t eat, bathe or clean my cell. I even turned violent. Whenever I hear someone touching my cell door, I scream. Even when there is cleaning going on, I begin to think that this is my last day.
Another death row inmate, 41-year-old Doesmatter Vhore, who was convicted of killing four white farmers, claims he was wrongfully convicted, although overwhelming evidence was presented against him during the trial. Vhore said:
At night, I don’t sleep; if I hear the sound of footsteps or keys, I begin to think death has finally come. Some inmates who have been here for long say when your time to die has come, they (prison officers) will come to pick you up around 3 am.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe confines death penalties to males aged between 21 and 70 years. Women are exempted.
President Mnangagwa, who survived the hangman’s noose on a technicality before independence for acts of sabotage, has reiterated that Zimbabwe should abolish the death penalty.