Thulisile Mapongwana
A group of protestors has demanded that government hold a referendum on the death penalty.
The call was made outside the East London Magistrate's Court on Tuesday where Sazizo Mbanjana made another brief appearance for the brutal murder of his six-year-old son, Sinobom Tywantsi.
He is accused of slitting the boy's throat in a reported custody battle with the child's mother.
Outraged by his alleged actions, Zamantshona Nkona of the African Transformation Movement says the government should hold a referendum on the death penalty.
"It is important that people who have taken a decision to limit the right of others to life do not come and claim a Constitutional right, being that of them having a life. Let South Africans decide on the matter," he said.
Nkona said; "He (the father) lost his right when he limited the right of a six-year-old from being alive. So, we are calling for a justice-based death penalty and that will be preceded by a referendum on the death penalty."
Meanwhile, local community activist, Leonard Ncumbese, says their next mandate is to rally protestors to go to the police station where the accused is kept so that other prisoners may know the savagery that he had committed.
"I am going to organise other people so that we can go to Correctional Services because we want to see where this guy is kept. And, we want to see the people that are in the same cell and pass a clear message that this guy has slaughtered a six-year-old boy (so) you must know why he is here."
Ncumbese said Mbanjana must receive the same kind of treatment that got him into prison so "that the lesson can be learned."
The case against 37-year-old Mbanjana was postponed to 17 January and he remains in custody.
