Report on Death Penalty

The South African Human Rights Commission has released its report on “The process of the Substitution of Death Penalty”. The Commission in this report considered why certain prisoners, originally sentenced to death, had not had their sentences converted.

The death penalty was declared unconstitutional in South Africa in 1995, yet seven years later the record of a large number of prisoners continue to reflect this penalty. Applicants still do not have certainty regarding their new sentences, which impacts upon their ability to obtain parole and privileges.

The last execution in South Africa occurred on the 14th November 1989, and thereafter the State issued a moratorium on executions. In 1995 the Constitutional Court handed down its first judgement, the Mankwanyane decision, which abolished the death penalty as a form of punishment in South Africa. It was further ordered that the State and all its organs were forbidden from executing any person already sentenced to death.

Official records indicate that there were 430 people who had been under the sentence of death at the time of the Makwanyane judgement. As a result of that judgement legislation was passed for the procedure to be followed in setting aside the death sentences and the substitution of those sentences with appropriate sentences.

As of the 5th of October 2002, according to the Legal Aid Board, approximately 230 people still reflected the death penalty as their sentence.

There are a number of reasons that were stated for the delays in finalisation of these cases such as internal organisational problems, judges concerned taking a while to make sentence recommendations, and the differing lists of prisoners who still reflect death penalty as their sentence. The Human Rights Commission makes various recommendations to deal with this matter in its report.

Copies of the report can be obtained from the Johannesburg offices of the Human Rights Commission or electronically.

Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission
Date: 6th November 2002
For more information contact:
Phumla Mthala Tel: (011) 484-8300/ 0832653612