Pardon all death-row inmates: Kgafela to Masisi

Sharon Mathala | Tuesday June 11, 2024 11:37

He said Masisi should do this as a way of setting a bargaining tool for another death row inmate elsewhere, Lesedi Molapisi. Molapisi was arrested for drug trafficking back in 2022 at Bangladesh's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after being found in possession of over 3.145kg of heroin. As per media reports in that country, she had arrived at the airport on a Qatar Airways flight from South Africa via Doha, Qatar. Last week a Bangladesh news agency, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), reported that a Dhaka court awarded Molapisi the death penalty.

Following the news of the sentence, Masisi made a public announcement that government would back Molapisi in her appeal. “What is left is an appeal. We will facilitate and provide counselling to the family. Provide some sort of financial support to enable the final appeal, as is led by the international human rights agency, Amnesty International,” he had said. This was also confirmed by Botswana’s High Commissioner to India, Gilbert Mangole who told RB1 news that he had consulted with Molapisi’s lawyer and that an appeal has been submitted. Now, in a letter to the President, Kgafela II pleads that Masisi should also pardon all death row inmates in Botswana. “Energy is never destroyed. It changes form. What goes around comes around. Cruelty begets cruelty. Death calls upon death. You commit an act of cruelty on this human soul today. A few days or months later you see cruelty manifest somewhere within your community,” Kgafela II tells Masisi about the laws of the universe.

Kgafela further reminds Masisi that for each execution he authorises citizens will eventually pay the price with a similar curse. “What many people don’t perceive is that people land on death row because they are caught up in a Cycle of Death and Cruelty karma initiated by an earlier act of cruelty. The murder rate and condemned numbers increase as well as the hangings for this reason of Recycled Death Energy. If in doubt, ask yourself, in the very least: where all that death energy transforms each moment?” the letter further reads. Kgafela further concludes his letter by advising Masisi that for him to persuade authorities in Bangladesh to pardon Molapisi “your local pardons may assist her case'. 'You all know that as we speak the truth no one loses anything if these pardons happen. Instead, we collectively attract a bad curse if the hangings proceed. If only you may visualise everything that goes on on death row for a moment. You will understand and remember the sign of Jonah,” Kgafela referenced a biblical metaphor.