SHOCK as Zanu PF MP says people who call for sanctions should be sentenced to death

ZANU-PF Chegutu West legislator Dexter Nduna has moved a motion to have any Zimbabwean who calls for sanctions on the country to be sentenced to death.

Nduna said people who call for sanctions that bring untold suffering to the general populace should be killed by a firing squad.

The legislator was contributing to debate on the need to promote ratification and implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“. . . Mr Speaker Sir, it has been seen and noted that unilateral sanctions are imposed on innocent, unsuspecting small nations such as Zimbabwe by big power houses who themselves are endowed with ubiquitous amounts of chemical weapons and other dangerous chemicals of mass destruction.

“I therefore, call upon the powers of this nation and Parliament of Zimbabwe to ratify a motion that says anybody who calls upon any nation to impose sanctions on this country and is a citizen of Zimbabwe should be sentenced to death,” said Nduna.

He said the individual should be sentenced to death and killed by a firing squad.

Nduna said as long as the country is under sanctions that speak about the imposition of weapons and military weaponry purchase into this country, it will never get to know which weapons are supposed to be banned.

“I therefore call upon those countries that have imposed weaponry, military and unilateral sanctions on Zimbabwe that are of an economic nature to repeal and to remove them so that we can conduct our business in an unimpeded manner, in an effective and efficient manner that is going to see us adhere to the values of the motion before us.

“I say in the absence of all this, the ratification can certainly be stopped in its tracks because we are throwing our arrows into the dark and we do not know what it is that we are stopping,” he said.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has meanwhile slammed the remarks by Nduna saying they were “unfortunate, disgusting and exposes his party for what it represents.”

“Nduna must know that he is a beneficiary of daylight robbery, benefiting from incompetence on the part of the electoral commission and suspicious adjudication of the dispute.

“He must at least redeem himself by using the stolen privilege to push for progressive legislation not spew his dreams of firing squads.

“The man probably wants to use parliament to make up for the time he should have been using toy guns as a young boy. Everyone missed something in their childhood, national institutions cannot therefore be used to compensate for such misfortunes.

“His utterances expose his misunderstanding of the supremacy of the constitution. A parliamentarian who pushes for legislation which is inconsistent with the constitution is not fit for purpose.

“Section 48 of the constitution is clear on the imposition of the death penalty, “A law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating circumstances.”

“We therefore condemn his attempt to scare Zimbabweans especially dissenting voices through a threat to bring an unconstitutional penalty especially for those who call for honest re-engagement which must be supported by reforms back at home,” the opposition party said in its statement.