SECRET HANGINGS TO CONTINUE? Despite claims by Bishop Muzorewa and his black colleagues on the Executive Council that hangings of political prisoners have ceased under the "internal settlement", the Rhodesian Attorney General's office has confirmed that there is as yet no official policy staying the execution of people convicted of offences connected with the armed struggle.
The Appellate Division of the High Court had approached the regime's Attorney General for clarification after Advocate Enoch Dumbutshena, defence counsel in Piason Ndhlovu's appeal against the death penalty, had argued that "as the Executive Council has apparently stopped executing prisoners, to keep condemned men in death cells over long periods of time is an inhuman and degrading punishment". He submitted that a sentence of life imprisonment should be substituted.
In reply a spokesman for the Attorney General stated that "since the Agreement of March 3, no sentences of death passed by the General Division of this Court and confirmed on appeal by this Court have been considered. Since there has been no consideration of any of the death sentences, no policy has, in fact, been as yet formulated by the Executive Council." While pressure of work had been responsible for this hold-up, in future there would be no "undue delay" in processing petitions for mercy, he said. This statement implies that there is no guarantee that hangings will not resume in the near future. It is possible that secret executions have in fact been carried out since March 1978. In reply to fears expressed by the Christian Council of Rhodesia that this might indeed be the case a spokesman for the regime's Ministry of Justice merely denied that secret hangings of political offenders were continuing "without reason". It is not clear whether under the rules governing the new special courts martial, furthermore, there is any provision for petitioning the Executive Council for mercy. Executions can be authorised by three or more members of the court martial Review Authority.
A further three people are known to have been sentenced to death under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act. This brings the total number given the death penalty since the "internal settlement", for political offences, to eleven.
PETER CHIKONO was sentenced to death in the High Court on 2 October for his part in a guerilla action against security forces during November 1977.
JOHN M. MASEKO was sentenced to death in the Bulawayo High Court on 6 October for guerilla activity, armed robbery and arson.
WALTER JELEMANI NCUBE (21) was sentenced to death by the Bulawayo High Court at the beginning of October for his part in a guerilla attack on the Sea Lion Ferry in Chete Gorge on Lake Kariba in December 1976, in which a white South African tourist, Mr. P.J. Collinson, had been killed. Ncube, who had later been involved in a battle with security forces at a roadblock, pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to possessing arms of war. Mr. Justice Gubbay, presiding, said that Ncube was "dedicated and highly trained and had achieved the rank of logistics adviser to the gang... We would be failing in our duty if we were to impose a sentence of less than death."
Four appeals against the death penalty have been dismissed, in the cases of: PIASON NDHLOVU (24), sentenced to death on 28 July for committing an act of terrorism and possessing arms of war. He was alleged to have planted landmines in the Mtoko district before eventually being captured by security forces in November 1977. In reply to a plea by the defence counsel, Mr. Enoch Dumbutshena, that the court should impose a sentence of life imprisonment rather than death as a means of increasing public confidence in the "cease-fire" exercise, the presiding judge replied that it was "not the function of the court" to assist the transitional government's efforts in this respect. Ndhlovu's appeal was dismissed on 18 September.
AUGUSTINE NYERENYERE (26) and his cousin AGGREY (23) had their appeals dismissed on 19 September. The two men, both vegetable sellers who travelled in to the capital from the Mtoko area, were sentenced to death on 4 August on conviction of planting six bombs in post offices and letter boxes in the Salisbury suburbs.
An appeal by REUBEN DONGA, sentenced to death on 23 August after pleading guilty to the murder of 18 villagers in a kraal in the Zwimba TTL and described as a ZIPRA guerilla, was dismissed at the beginning of October. Donga, who was defended at his trial by Advocate Enoch Dumbutshena, a member of and legal adviser to the UANC, stated that he and his comrade (later killed by security forces) had carried out the killing at the instigation of six supporters of Bishop Muzorewa, who told them that there were Sithole "soldiers" in the kraal who went around killing Muzorewa supporters. He also said that he had agreed to be interviewed by the foreign press for propaganda purposes, and had appeared on television, because the police had promised to help him and to treat him well - a practice that was sharply criticised in court by Adv. Dumbutshena. "When a government of a country takes a criminal, a person who has committed a serious offence, and uses him to disseminate international propaganda, it becomes sadistic for that Government to put that person through the machinery of the court with a view that in the end he might meet the ultimate penalty, in this regard, the death penalty," he said.
