The President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, recently made an announcement in which he shared his quest towards abolishing the death penalty row. In this announcement, the Zambian President stated that the concept of the death penalty is cruel, inhumane, and degrading and does not hold any significance in the present society and economy. This announcement from the Zambian President received widespread support from Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, a noted businessman, philanthropist, and charity worker from Zambia. Even though there are various people opposing this decision, Dr. Mahtani has argued that capital punishment or the killing of convicts will not solve underlying problems. According to Dr. Mahtani, a person given death row is already living the punishment on a daily basis as the prisoner will never know when it will be their last day on this earth. There are around 386 death row inmates in Zambia at the moment and around 30 of them are women. Dr. Rajan Mahtani also argued that there are a number of inmates who have transformed themselves by returning to god’s penance and there is still hope for them to change their lives for the better.
Recently, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani was awarded with one of the most prestigious corporate awards in Zambia. Forbes ‘Best of Africa’ awards are among the most honored and respected corporate and leadership awards across the entire Africa. The awards are presented to leading lights and visionaries who have made significant and long-term contributions towards philanthropy as a means to achieve long-term empowerment of the African nation. Dr. Rajan Mahtani was presented with this award for his significant philanthropic and charitable contributions to the Zambian nation and its people. Dr. Rajan Mahtani founded the Prison Fellowship Zambia for the welfare of Zambian inmates. Prison Fellowship works towards providing welfare, transparent criminal justice, fundamental human dignity as well as human rights to the prisoners in Zambia. As such, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has said that his company Prison Fellowship will provide legal and regulatory support towards this decision.