The small team within the office of the Minister for Correctional Services will be spending the coming weekend, from Friday November 11 to Sunday November 13, in the Western Cape with the purpose of meeting and interviewing families of the hanged.

Khulumani's Provincial Chairperson who has long been deeply concerned about families of the hanged, will participate in these meetings. Rolihlahla has been compiling lists of the families of the hanged from the Western Cape over the past several years in response to their requests for the return of the bodies of the hanged to their families.

Shamefully in South Africa, families played no role in the burial of their loved ones who had been hanged. This was a violation of African understandings of the importance of dignified burials in the presence of family who continue relationships with the "living dead" beyond death.

Khulumani believes that this campaign initiated by the Minister can contribute to deepening understanding across the African continent about the need for the abolition of the death penalty - a punishment based on the unacceptable belief that "killing a person who kills another person will prevent future killings". The late Ms Anne Colvin from Pietermartizburg who worked tirelessly on the Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty in South Africa, always raised the question "how can two wrongs ever make a right?"

We appreciate the willingness of the Minister of Correctional Services to work with local Khulumani structures in this project.