Hani’s wife outraged by killer’s parole

Limpho Hani, the wife of South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani, who was gunned down nearly 30 years ago, has blasted Chief Justice Raymond Zondo following his ruling in South Africa&#039;s Constitutional Court to release her husband’s killer on parole.In his ruling on Monday afternoon, Zondo ordered the release of Janusz Waluś on parole within 10 days.He said the decision by justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola to deny Waluś parole was "inexplicable and irrational" and should therefore be reviewed and set aside.He added that the onus was now on Lamola to set conditions for the Polish national&#039;s release, highlighting that more than 15 years have elapsed since he became eligible for parole.Zondo said the 69-year-old Waluś had also apologised to the family on several occasions. Lamola was further ordered to pay Waluś’ costs.&#039;Diabolical&#039;The ruling has left the Hani family fuming, with an angry Limpho storming out of court after the verdict.“This court has not even addressed the victims. I don’t exist. He is busy giving us a lecture about a Polish man who came to South Africa to kill my husband. Do you understand how I feel?“ she asked."Chief Justice Zondo has failed this country completely, and I am not going to apologise. This country is finished."In this country, a foreign white can come into South Africa and kill my husband. He [Zondo] couldn’t give a s**t. He couldn’t be bothered,” she said.Limpho described the judgment as "diabolical"."I have never seen something like this in my life. If my husband was not killed, we would have never had elections. Mandela, after my husband was murdered, said to [FW] de Klerk &#039;for us to stop this, give us an election date&#039;."That is why Zondo and his friends today are sitting in this court."&#039;Meticulously planned&#039;The Polish immigrant is serving a life sentence at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria for the murder of the anti-apartheid activist in 1993.Waluś, who became eligible for parole almost 17 years ago after serving 13 years and four months of his life sentence, has been applying for parole since 2011 - and has been denied every time.He was initially sentenced to death for Hani&#039;s murder, but his sentence was commuted to life behind bars.Waluś asked the apex court to set aside a Supreme Court of Appeal decision to dismiss his leave to appeal against a High Court judgment that upheld the refusal of his parole by Lamola in March 2020.Zondo said the court needed to take into account that he was involved in a serious crime that was meticulously planned. His conduct and that of his accomplice, right-wing politician Clive Derby-Lewis, almost plunged the country into civil unrest, he said.According to Zondo, it seemed that Waluś and Derby-Lewis had been intentional in delaying democracy when they killed Hani. He highlighted that they had served the minimum required time behind bars before they could be considered for parole.Waluś and Derby-Lewis were both sentenced to death, but their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment when South Africa abolished the death penalty.Derby-Lewis, who had allegedly ordered the hit carried out by Waluś, was granted medical parole in 2015 and died the following year of cancer.Among Lamola’s reasons for denying Waluś&#039; parole application was that the trial court which had jailed him had wanted to send a message that would clarify that assassinating political leaders was unacceptable.Waluś said it was of public importance to establish the reasons and grounds for his continued incarceration. In his bid for freedom, he said: “If I do not succeed with this application, it appears I will be incarcerated forever, which is an unjust, inhumane and cruel punishment”.Who was Hani?Hani helped build a culture of internal criticism in the African National Congress (ANC). In 1969, he and six other commissars and commanders of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC&#039;s military wing, signed what became known as the &#039;Hani memorandum&#039;.The memorandum outlined the “frightening depth of the rot in the ANC”, accusing its leadership of careerism, corruption and persecution by the party&#039;s security.Hani&#039;s memorandum was the catalyst for one of the most significant events in the history of the ANC in exile, a conference in Morogoro, Tanzania. But it was viewed as treacherous by some within the leadership, particularly those it had criticised.Hani and his comrades were expelled from the ANC and only reinstated after the Morogoro conference.– News24 & Times Live

Hani’s wife outraged by killer’s parole

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-08

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Hani’s wife outraged by killer’s parole

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-08

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