Sunday Times - Johannesburg

SOUTH AFRICA: Hundreds Still On Death Row Years After Hanging Ended

11/06/03

More than 200 inmates of South Africa's prisons still have the status of death row prisoners even though the government declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1994.

The prisoners, who were sentenced to death before 1990 and include armed robbers, murderers and rapists, are still in maximum-security sections of prisons throughout the country. A moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in 1990.

Now the Legal Aid Board, the Justice and Correctional Services departments and the SA Human Rights Commission have set out to review the prisoners' sentences.

Although the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1998 made provision for the death penalty to be reviewed and replaced by other punishments, only 295 of the 497 death row prisoners have had their sentences converted.

Among those whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment were Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus, the killers of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani.

Justice Department spokesman Paul Setsetse confirmed that the prisoners who were sentenced to death included murderers, rapists and robbers.

He said their sentences would be reviewed and some were expected to receive lighter sentences.

"The programme of restructuring commenced three years ago and those sentenced to death are being resentenced. Their cases won't be retried but the judge will have to consider evidence as well as take into account the time already served by these inmates."

He said courts would consider written arguments drawn up by lawyers acting for the state and the prisoners, as well as taking into account the evidence led at the original trial.

A report by the Human Rights Commission has revealed that Death Row applicants "still do not have certainty regarding their new sentence, which impacts on their ability to obtain parole and privileges".

The report said one of the main reasons for the delay in conversions was due to the "intricacy of the procedure and the fact that it involves quite a number of role players, who each have to perform in order for the process to move forward".

Setsetse admitted that the bureaucratic process was the main reason for the delay.

Russel Mamabolo, a spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, said all converted sentences would have to be ratified by President Thabo Mbeki.