So Monday night’s live televised debate between Mmusi Maimane and Wilmot James wasn’t the usual mud-slinging and name-calling political discourse we have become used to, but there were still a few shots fired from both sides.

Other than learning that Maimane is a powerful orator, something we knew already from his now-revered State of the Nation attack on Jacob Zuma, we also learnt that he can talk himself into a corner. Were he to take the DA forward as leader-elect he will have to clarify his views on certain contentious issues, and they don’t come more heated than bringing back the death penalty.

During Monday’s debate, Maimane alluded to his support for the reinstatement of the death penalty, then clarified that he merely supported a referendum. Here’s BD Live on the legal pitfalls of such a vote:

It is contentious because the Constitutional Court, in a seminal judgment in the first case it heard in 1995, set out why the death penalty undermined the kind of society envisaged by the Constitution and why public opinion should not sway the court on the issue…

The DA proclaims itself a champion of the Constitution and, given the controversies over the death penalty globally and SA’s tortured past when such policy held sway, it would be prudent for Mr Maimane to reflect on the harm that could come from such a referendum.

It would probably be wise of Maimane to tread lightly around issues such as these, although his forthrightness is one of the reasons he has garnered such support amongst DA supporters. No doubt we will hear more on this in the weeks that follow.

[source:bdlive]