Previously unpublished figures released in June this year showed that the number of executions in South Africa has trebled in the five years after 1974. By mid-July, 69 people had already been hanged since the beginning of 1981.
A recent article in the South African Law Journal showed that the annual number of executions reached new peaks in recent years after declining markedly in the 1970s. During the 1960s the number of executions exceeded 100 per year several times. In 1973-4 there were 43 hangings. Since then the number has trebled with annual figures of 148, 128 and 114 for the years 1978-79, 1979-80 and 1980-81 respectively.
South Africa accounts for half of the world's known judicial executions.
Several crimes carry the death penalty in South Africa, including murder, treason, rape, robbery and/or housebreaking with aggravating circumstances, sabotage, undergoing training or obtaining information that could further an objective of communism,
