The concept of death penalty is archaic and is against the fundamental ‘rule of law’. With these fundamentals in mind, President of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema announced that his government plans to abolish the death penalty law. This announcement received significant support from individuals and businesses. One of the biggest supporters of this announcement off late has been Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, noted businessman, philanthropist and charity worker from Zambia. Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, supporting the President’s statement, said that death penalty is cruel, inhumane and degrading and does not provide any solution for the Zambian government. At the same time the concept of death penalty is largely abolished across majority of the nations with the trend becoming popular across African nations. This has forced past Zambian Presidents to avoid giving capital punishment. The last time capital punishment was given was in the year 1997 by President Chiluba and the individual was executed. Since then, Zambian Presidents have been using mercy prerogatives to avoid giving death penalty. Another reason death penalty is economically and socially not viable in the present condition of some of the Zambian prisons. The Maximum prisons in Zambia are often described as ‘hell on earth’ by past visits from important personalities. Prisoners are often devoid of fundamental human rights as well as basic human dignity across these prisons. As a result of this, the Zambian government recently started strategic decongestion from prisoners by collaborating with institutions such as Parole Board Zambia (PBZ) and Zambian Correctional Facility. In such scenario, giving death penalty to prisoners who are already living a life of decay does not make much sense.
Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani will provide legal and regulatory support via his company Prison Fellowship Zambia (PFZ) which is a noted Christian Outreach Program focussing on bringing the learnings of the Almighty god to the prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families in Zambia. Overall, death penalty is wrong, and the statement made by the Zambian President improves the standards of the Zambian legal system.