Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA LENGTH: Short
On death row at the Pretoria Central Prison, the 453 inmates sentenced to hang burst into cheers and song when they heard the unanimous decision of the 11-member Constitutional Court, prison officials said.
``All these years, I'm praying to God, and today it was glory,'' said Onecca Molefe of Soweto, whose son Norman has been on death row since 1990.
``The eye-for-an-eye argument does not hold water any more in our society,'' said jubilant human rights lawyer Ahmed Matala, who had campaigned against the death penalty.
But Deputy President F.W. de Klerk warned the decision went against the desires of the ``overwhelming majority'' of South Africans who live in fear of crime. He pledged his National Party would fight for a constitutional amendment to reimpose the death penalty.
It was de Klerk, as president in 1990, who suspended executions as part of an initiative to begin negotiations with the African National Congress. South Africa's last hanging was in 1989, but killers have continued to be sentenced to death.
- Associated Press
by CNB