On this day in history: Mandela calls for calm after Hani assassination
On 14 April 1993, Nelson Mandela called for calm after the assassination of SACP leader and uMkhonto weSizwe chief commander Chris Hani.
Following the assassination of Chris Hani on 10 April 1993, Nelson Mandela made a televised appeal for a peaceful day of mourning on 14 April 1993.
He urged South Africans to come together. Despite this appeal, tensions continued to rise following the former Secretary-General of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and uMkhonto weSizwe chief commander’s shooting. Hani was shot dead outside his house in Dawn Park, Boskburg.
The murder was carefully orchestrated by Janusz Walus, an anti-Communist Polish immigrant and ex politician Clive Derby-Lewis. Both Walus and Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death for the murder. The two men’s sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished as a result of a Constitutional Court ruling in 1995.
Janusz Walus was arrested within hours of the murder. He has been in jail for nearly 23 years.
Unrest following Hani’s murder claimed more than 70 lives.
