By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GettyImages.
ActionSA’s Senate resolved that the party will not support the reintroduction of the death penalty, but rather focus on accountability measures which ensure that life in prison means life in prison.
The Senate, the party’s highest decision-making body, believes the death penalty is not the solution.
The national chairperson Michael Beaumont, outlined some of the key issues that will be discussed during the policy conference.
This included economic prosperity, energy security, economic justice, corruption, law and order, education, healthcare, public service, foreign policy, land, climate, and environment, as well as rural development and traditional affairs.
“This policy conference follows the participatory process that has become synonymous with ActionSA going back to its roots in the People’s Dialogue. The journey leading up to this conference has been an intensive three-year process.
“ActionSA has engaged with its members and supporters industry experts, professionals, and ordinary South Africans to gather insights and solutions to address the most pressing challenges of our time,” said Beaumont.
The conference is taking place at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
ActionSA delegates were greeted by a musical orchestra as they made their way into the hotel for the party’s first-ever policy conference since it was founded in 2020.
Led by its founder Herman Mashaba, ActionSA came onto the political scene as a party with a hard line on immigration and as stern advocates of the death penalty.
Mashaba however backtracked on his call for the return of capital punishment amid the country’s high murder rate.
He has on numerous occasions, come under fire for his stance on the return of the death penalty as a solution to the murder and crime challenges in the country.
In March, addressing a breakfast meeting, Mashaba told those attending that he was going to “fight with my hands” at the policy conference for the reintroduction of the death penalty.
Mashaba, at the time, said the reintroduction of the death penalty was the only way to deter hardened criminals.
He told the breakfast meeting that people arrested for murder and rape were released on parole, only to repeat the same crimes.
Mashaba today told delegates that, after consultations with experts, he believed the call was premature.
“Given my vocal stance on capital punishment in the past, it is certainly true that I have been a believer in capital punishment as I have watched law-abiding South Africans being raped, murdered, and pillaged by violent criminals who should never have been set free,” he said.
“When our Senate came together, last month, to consider the outcomes of our policy consultative processes that saw us engage with experts, the public and our internal structures, an argument emerged which compelled me to reconsider my own belief in capital punishment.”
Mashaba said death penalty would disproportionately affect the poor.
“It is equally apparent that the implementation of capital punishment would disproportionally prejudice poor leading to their conviction and execution, while the wealthy, accused of the same offences, would have the resources to avoid such a sanction.
“This is why I believe the right approach is, rather, to change minimum sentencing so that violent criminals may never be released to harm another person. Lifetime imprisonment should mean exactly that,” he told delegates.
Mashaba’s support for the death penalty as an effective deterrent to violent crime was based on several misconceptions and deliberate misrepresentations.
Its Gauteng leader, Funzi Ngobeni, said this policy conference was an opportunity for the party to share its considered vision with the people of South Africa
“South Africans have been waiting for an alternative and they have been skeptical in some quarters, not knowing what we stand for and this policy conference is going to give them an idea of what we stand for.”
ActionSA Eastern Cape leader, Athol Trollip, said there needed to be a new approach on the issue of land in his province and many rural areas across South Africa.
“No production is happening in the rural areas and the state is always involved handing out seed, handing out this and that but there is no extension services, there is no support for those farmers and the project always ends up in failure.”
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of ActionSA.