On April 17, South Africa's President-in-waiting Thabo...

On April 17, South Africa's President-in-waiting Thabo Mbeki rejected a return to the death penalty, despite a string of brutal crimes. Strongly tipped to take over from retiring President Nelson Mandela after the June 2 elections, Mbeki said his Government would work harder to combat the scourge of crime, but never reinstate capital punishment. "Tens of thousands of black people were hanged in this country under the death penalty. It didn't do anything to reduce levels of that sort of crime," Mbeki said.