Janusz Walus, the convicted killer of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani. REUTERS/Files
After spending more than 31 years in South Africa - mostly locked-up in prison - the South African Government is deporting former SACP leader Chris Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus, back to Poland.
Minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, told the media that Walus was due to fly out immediately - on Friday. This was after he had served two years on parole following his life sentence for the murder.
Home Affairs made it clear that Walus’s plane ticket to his country of birth will not be footed by the South African taxpayer. The Polish Embassy said they will pay for him to go to that country.
Hani’s widow and the SACP, meanwhile, said they wanted an inquest to be held into his death. The Hani family and the party from the start voiced their concerns that facts relating to Hani’s murder are still being kept under wraps.
On April 10, 1993, Walus assassinated Chris Hani, who was the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, the Chief-of-Staff on the people’s army uMkhonto we Sizwe and a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC.
At the time of his assassination, the negotiations for a free and equal South Africa had stalled, and his tragic death forced the negotiating parties to set a date for the first democratic General Elections on April 27, 1994.
“So, every year that we celebrate Freedom Day, as a country we are in large part indebted to Chris Hani,” Ntshavheni said.
Walus was sentenced to death on October 15, 1993, for the assassination. On November 7, 2000, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Walus held dual citizenship (Polish and South African) from 1986 until 2017, when his South African citizenship was revoked, and now holds only Polish citizenship.
Several ministers of correctional services have denied Walus’ applications for parole since 2011. In November 2022, the Constitutional Court, however, ordered that Walus be placed on parole within ten days of the date of the order, in line with applicable legislation.
At the time, the applicable parole period was two years. Walus was subsequently placed on parole on December 7, 2022, subject to parole conditions.
Yesterday, the parole period of Walus came to an end in line with the Constitutional Court decision. Since he no longer holds any South African enabling documents, the Department of Home Affairs deported him.
The national commissioner of correctional services was set to formally hand him over yesterday (Friday) to home affairs for deportation.
The deportation process followed a cabinet briefing earlier this week. In preparation for this deportation, the cabinet assigned Deputy President Paul Mashatile and several of the relevant ministers to visit the family of the late Chris Hani to inform them of these developments.
During this engagement, the government delegation received a request for an inquest from Hani’s wife and the SACP.
The request will be referred to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Ntshavheni said.
No details were given during the media briefing exactly what the Hani family and the SACP wanted to achieve with the inquest, other than that they felt that there were issues which were never looked into.
Pretoria News
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
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