SOUTH AFRICA. CALLS FOR THE RETURN OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

leaders from political parties such as the Freedom Front Plus, the Christian Democratic Party and the Pro-Death Penalty Party were reportedly united in one cause: reinstating capital punishment in South Africa. The country abolished the death penalty in 1995, a year after the demise of apartheid. But Pieter Uys, spokesman of the Pretoria-based Freedom Front Plus, said it was a mistake to scrap the law.
"There are 18,000 murders a year in South Africa. That means there are 18,000 killers walking around with too few police looking for them," Uys said. "These criminals don't respect any form of life at all. The only solution is to bring back the death penalty. All the other solutions have failed."
"It shouldn't be seen as retribution. It is to ensure the safety of society," said Theunas Botha, the national leader of the Christian Democratic Party. The government will not allow a referendum on the death penalty, he said, because authorities fear it will be approved.
Moreover, Botha said his party believed that the threat of death can deter crime: "I lived in Britain from 1960 to 1970 when the death penalty was there. There was less crime. Since they took away the death penalty, you hear (about) all sorts of crimes, including murders. The police also didn't use to carry guns. Now they carry guns."
Botha could not provide statistics to back claims that capital punishment has deterred crime in Britain and South Africa. In fact, studies have failed to prove that capital punishment discourages crime, according to Amnesty International.
"(The) death penalty is premeditated murder. There is very little evidence to support that the death penalty can deter murder. It's a very weak and sloppy argument," said Marjorie Dobson, chairwoman of Khulumani Support Group, which campaigned for the abolition of capital punishment a decade back.
A better way to prevent crime, Dobson suggested, was to confront the causes. "We studied people on death row and found that most of the killings happen haphazardly when (the perpetrators) are drunk," she said.
Botha said he believed no innocent person would be executed, were capital punishment to be reinstated.
"The death penalty should be handled in a special way. It should never be applied without proper witnesses and processes," he said. "Give the person a chance and opportunity to prove his innocence."