Authorities announced on Tuesday that Janusz Walus, the man responsible for the death of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani over three decades ago, was stabbed in prison and is currently being treated.
This week, the South African Constitutional Court granted parole to Walus, a 69-year-old Polish national who was about to be released. Protests and harsh condemnation of the decision could be heard across the country.
The agency said that another prisoner from the same housing unit was responsible for stabbing him, but it gave no more information about the incident or the person who did it.
In 1993, Walus shot Hani outside the home of the anti-apartheid activist, who was a senior member of the then-ruling African National Congress and the head of the South African Communist Party at the time.
After decades of white minority rule under apartheid, his death sparked widespread unrest that put South Africa’s transition to multiracial democracy in jeopardy.
In 1981, he left the then-communist Poland and settled in South Africa, where he got involved in far-right activities.
Aaron Motsoaledi, the minister of home affairs of South Africa, gave Walus permission to live there on Monday so that he may complete his parole there.
The grave of anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani was vandalized in South Africa, a week after the controversial announcement of the early release of his killer, sources from the municipalityof Ekurhuleni where the monument dedicated to his memory said on Tuesday (November 29).
“The monument was vandalized overnight from Saturday to Sunday. One of the pillars is badly damaged. One side collapsed and the lighting system was stolen,” spokesperson Zweli Dlamini told AFP of the city located east of Johannesburg. An investigation was opened for theft and vandalism.
South Africa: Janusz Walus, killer of anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani to be released on parole https://t.co/PSaaQAYKim
The monument consists of four marble columns symbolizing the pillars of the struggle against white power led by the African National Congress (ANC), in power since the advent of democracy in 1994.
South Africa: Janusz Walus, killer of anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani to be released on parole https://t.co/PSaaQAYKim
A demonstration against the release of the assassin of Chris Hani, in the Hall of Heroes of the Anti-Apartheid Struggle and whose disappearance is commemorated each year in South Africa, gathered dozens of people on Saturday at the call of the ANC.
The ANC said in a statement “deeply saddened by the vandalism and desecration” of the monument.
Communist leader and senior member of the armed wing of the Liberation Party, Chris Hani, 50, was killed at close range in his driveway on April 10, 1993, by the Polish immigrant linked to the far-right white Afrikaner, Janusz Walus.
A demonstration against the release of the assassin of Chris Hani, in the Hall of Heroes of the Anti-Apartheid Struggle and whose disappearance is commemorated each year in South Africa, gathered dozens of people on Saturday at the call of the ANC.
The ANC said in a statement “deeply saddened by the vandalism and desecration” of the monument.
Communist leader and senior member of the armed wing of the Liberation Party, Chris Hani, 50, was killed at close range in his driveway on April 10, 1993, by the Polish immigrant linked to the far-right white Afrikaner, Janusz Walus.
At the time, delicate negotiations with the white power in view of the first democratic elections in the country were underway. The assassination exacerbates racial tensions and provokes violent riots in the townships of South Africa shaken by the last gasps of the racist regime. In a vibrant televised speech, Nelson Mandela calls for calm.
Janusz Walus, now 69, had been sentenced to death but the new regime abolished capital punishment in 1994, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
After several refusals, the court granted him conditional release on November 21. He must be released from prison no later than December 1. Chris Hani’s widow has denounced a “diabolical judgment”.
The families of some anti-apartheid activists who were killed during the height of political violence in the 1980s in Umgababa, south of Durban have come together at a rememberance ceremony.
A wreath has also been laid at a memorial site in the area.
Human rights lawyer Linda Zama explains what the day means to her.
“As a veteran, it is a celebration for lives that were well lived, the lives of great sacrifice. As a veteran lawyer, this day is very important because it is a reminder and a challenge that what the people who died here fought for, has not been achieved.
There is a lot of work to be done, however there has been progress. Therefore, as a Human Rights lawyer, it is a re-dedication that on the ground – we need to work that the rights of people need to be enhanced,” says Zama.
“First of all, the law is blind and that is where the challenge lies. Another thing, the law doesn’t come with emotions, there are certain things that we as ordinary people will not understand by the law since the law is blind. The Janusz Walus case is a case in point, but people are angry because Chris Hani was their hero. They seem to miss the point that when it comes to procedures, the procedure in granting parole the law is blind,” says Zama.
Members of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its allied Communist Party protested outside Johannesburg’s Constitutional Court to express their outrage over the decision to free the man who murdered anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani.
Janusz Walus, a Polish immigrant, murdered Hani in 1993 to sabotage the transition from white minority rule to democracy.
On Monday, Chief Justice Ray Zondo directed the country’s corrections minister to grant Walus parole.
Panyaza Lesufi, a senior ANC member, said more protests were planned to coincide with his expected release next week.
Walus killed Hani as he picked up the newspapers outside his home in April 1993 by shooting him at point-blank range in the chin, behind the ear and in the chest.
He was arrested and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life after South Africa abolished the death penalty at the end of apartheid, a legalised system of racial discrimination, in 1994.
Hani’s murder still evokes deep emotions in South Africa. He was regarded as the most popular politician after South Africa’s first black President Nelson Mandela, and his death caused much shock and anger.
The South African Constitutional Court has ordered that a convicted murderer serving a life sentence for the murder of anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani in 1993 be released on parole in 10 days.
Janusz Walus, a Polish immigrant who had gained South African citizenship, hoped the assassination would spark a racial war during the final days of the apartheid regime.
He has been imprisoned for the past 28 years, and parole requests have been strongly opposed.
On Monday, widow Limpho Hani said the decision to release her husband’s killer was “diabolical”.
Walus together with his co-defendant Clive Derby-Lewis, who died in 2016, were sentenced to death shortly after Hani’s killing, but the sentence was commuted to life after South Africa abolished the death penalty.
They both appealed for amnesty during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)in 1997, with Walus saying that he was driven by political, anti-communist motives to kill Hani, who was then the secretary-general of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and also a leading figure in the armed wing of the African National Congress.
Walus’ imprisonment won sympathy and support from far-right groups in Poland.
Huge banners bearing his portraits and chants calling for his release have been a common feature at some football stadiums in Poland.
Merchandise like scarves and stickers celebrating Walus have also been sold online.
In 2016, Walus met Hani’s daughter, Lindiwe, in prison.
“He told her [that] when he lost his father [in 1997] then he understood that Chris Hani was not only a communist, but he was also a father and husband,” Polish journalist Cezary Lazarewicz told me in 2020.
“Walus told me that he was very sorry for killing Lindiwe’s father. But he never regretted [killing a] communist leader. He told me, in 1993, there was a war in South Africa and he felt like a soldier… he still believes in the system of racial segregation and that whites and blacks should live apart,” Mr Lazarewicz added.
In court on Monday Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said “the principle of equality before the law was not just written for those who fought apartheid – but those who actively supported it”, South African journalist Karyn Maughan reports.
But Limpho Hani, speaking minutes after the judgement was made, reacted angrily, “this judgment is diabolical, totally diabolical”.
