BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY!

Tebogo Setshedi Tshwane Talks reader

By Tebogo Setshedi

For years, South Africans have watched the moral fabric of our nation slowly unravel.

Corruption thrives, murder is casual, rape is rampant, and the trafficking of drugs and human beings has become an invisible war on our youth.

We have reached a point where our justice system feels like a polite conversation in a burning house.

It is time to restore the one deterrent that once made crime tremble the death penalty. The Constitution of 1996 abolished capital punishment, guided by noble intentions of human rights and
rehabilitation.

But nearly three decades later, we must admit that this idealism has been abused.

Criminals no longer fear the consequences of their actions. Prisons have become hotels for repeat offenders, and corruption has evolved into a national sport.

When the custodians of public trust steal billions meant for hospitals, schools, and social welfare, the
result is not a financial crime it is mass murder through deprivation.

Reinstating the death penalty for public fund graft, murder, rape, and human or drug trafficking is not about
vengeance.

It is about accountability.

These are not ordinary crimes they are acts of war against the people of South Africa. A corrupt official who steals from the public purse condemns thousands to poverty and hunger.

A rapist destroys generations through
trauma.

A murderer shatters families forever. And a drug trafficker poisons communities for profit.

Why should such individuals be allowed to live comfortably at taxpayers’
expense?

The argument that the death penalty is inhumane ignores the daily brutality
inflicted on victims.

What could be more inhumane than the torture of a child by a predator,
or the mass suffering caused by stolen healthcare funds? Justice must reflect not only mercy but moral balance.

Mercy without justice is moral weakness. Opponents will quote constitutional morality and the sanctity of life.

But they often forget that the Constitution begins with the words “We, the people.” When the state fails to protect its citizens, the social contract is broken.

Law-abiding citizens have rights too — the right to safety, the right to justice, and the right to see evil confronted, not rewarded.

Other nations have proved that a firm justice system can coexist with human rights.

Singapore, for example, enforces the death penalty for drug trafficking and enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in
the world.

Botswana and parts of the United States still apply it judiciously and maintain far higher public confidence in justice than South Africa does today.

We must not confuse compassion with weakness.

The death penalty, reinstated with strict oversight, forensic
evidence, and legal safeguards, can restore dignity to our justice system.

It can send a clear message: South Africa will no longer tolerate predators disguised as leaders or citizens who profit from human misery.

Our democracy was built on freedom, but freedom without responsibility is chaos. Those who choose to murder, rape, traffic drugs, or steal from the public in ways that destroy lives have already declared war on our society.

Let the law respond accordingly. South Africa stands at a moral crossroads.

We can continue to debate ideals while corruption and crime consume the nation or we can choose courage and protect the innocent.

Justice must not only be seen to be done; it must mean something.

It is time.

Bring back the death penalty not as revenge, but as a declaration that in this nation, the lives of the innocent still matter.