ActionSA president, Herman Mashaba, said justice in South Africa was not equally applied as people with resources could buy their way out of punishment.
Herman Mashaba addressed delegates at ActionSA’s policy conference currently taking place at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg on 12 September 2023.
JOHANNESBURG – ActionSA president, Herman Mashaba, said the death penalty could not work under the current justice system as it would disproportionately affect poor people.
He said justice in South Africa was not equally applied as people with resources could buy their way out of punishment.
Mashaba was speaking at the party’s policy conference currently taking place at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
Mashaba has a long-documented history of being an advocate for capital punishment in South Africa, a method that was last used during apartheid.
However, the ActionSA president has had a change of heart recently, with the issue not forming part of the topics that will be discussed at the party’s policy conference.
He said the issue of who gets to live and die should not be at the hands of a dysfunctional state.
“This fact was conveyed to me by experts who demonstrated the relative disadvantage experienced by poor South Africans compounded by the ineptitude of our current criminal justice system, that is why I believe the right approach is to change minimum sentences so that violent criminals may never be released to harm another person again.”
Mashaba said government could seek restitution from criminals through prison labour, something the South African government was already practising in some prisons.