Reverend Kebinang Moenga, the vice president of the Botswana Christian Council (BCC) said that he intends to launch a massive campaign against capital punishment -- a practice he dubbed as a social evil that must be done away with immediately.

"I think for a long time, Batswana have been quiet about capital punishment, but it is about time we should move forward to campaign for more support. We Batswana tend to be blind when we look at evil deeds like death sentences," said Moenga, according to the Mmegi newspaper.

Botswana is a country of 1.5 million in Southern Africa. 15% are Christian, according to the CIA fact book.

In the report, Moenga stated that those criminals that were found guilty should be rehabilitated. Although the government is staunchly in support of the death penalty, Moenga is undaunted and intends to fight by preaching against it from a Christian perspective, he said in the article. He intends to fight hard "until sanity prevails over an evil."

Since its independence in 1968 until September 2003, there have been 34 executions of convicted criminals by hanging, according to ditshwanelo.org.

"Capital punishment has been practiced for a long time here in Botswana and of course many Batswana are supporting it," he said. "If they can truly understand the evilness of this capital punishment, I am not seeing many of them supporting it," he added.

To show his commitment to fight against capital punishment, he will release a book locally on March 11 titled, "Evils of Capital Punishment, an Ethical Perspective."





Francis Helguero
Ecumenical Press