Sandra Smith is the last woman to be executed in South Africa

On 2 June, 24 year old Coloured woman, Sandra Smith, was executed by hanging at Pretoria Central Prison. She was the last woman to be executed in South Africa. Smith had been convicted alongside her boyfriend Yassiem Harris for the robbery and murder of Jermaine Abrahams. The two broke into Abrahams’ house with the intention of robbing her, having discovered that she was wealthy. Abrahams surprised the couple by being home and so they tied her up and cut her throat. Two weeks after the murder, Smith was caught and interrogated for another unrelated robbery but during her interrogation confessed to the murder of Abrahams. Smith was tried and sentenced for her part in Abrahams’ murder and was hanged alongside Harris and two others. Group hangings were common, with the gallows able to hang up to 7 people at a time. Out of nearly 3 000 hangings between 1959 and 1989, only 14 were women. Of the 14, most were executed for crimes not politically motivated. Many women were executed for the murder of their husbands, including infamous serial killer Daisy de Melker. The Apartheid years saw a steady increase in the number of people executed in South Africa. In the 1980s particularly, more people were executed per year than anywhere else in the world. In 1990, during the interregnum, de Klerk ordered a stay on all scheduled executions. Under the democratic dispensation, the death penalty was completely abolished, bringing an end to a system that saw 3 500 people hanged at Pretoria Central Prison.