Hani’s killer again seeks release on parole

SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani’s assassin, Janusz Waluś, will this week again apply to the High Court in Pretoria for his release on parole, subject to his deportation to Poland on his release.

Waluś, a Polish immigrant, has served almost 25 years for shooting Hani to death in the driveway of his Boksburg home in 1993.

Home affairs revoked his South African citizenship in 2016.

He and Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis, who supplied the murder weapon, were initially sentenced to death but their sentences were in 2000 commuted to life imprisonment.

Derby-Lewis, who was released on medical parole in 2015, died of lung cancer a year later.

Waluś wants the court to set aside Justice Minister Michael Masutha’s decision in November last year to refuse him parole yet again, claiming the decision was unfair, irrational and politically motivated.

The high court initially ordered his release on parole, but the Supreme Court of Appeal in August last year set aside the decision and referred the matter back to the minister.

The minister refused Waluś parole following a new parole hearing in October last year on the basis that Waluś’ apology was not sincere, that there were inconsistencies in his account about the murder and that he posed a risk as he still harboured the same views about communism.

Waluś said in an October 2017 statement he was merely a foot soldier and “simply had no knowledge of anyone else having been involved”. He said he had repeatedly tried to apologise to the Hani family since 2013 and his apology was sincere.

The minister directed that Waluś must receive psychotherapy to assist in addressing his political ideologies and engage in a further restorative justice process with Hani’s family, the SACP and the community.

Waluś said in an affidavit this was “ludicrous” as Limpho Hani made it very clear that she never wished to see him again and had blamed him for destroying her life.

Waluś’ legal team maintained the minister had set a legal precedent by granting parole to two Chinese offenders who were in 2002 sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering and chopping up their kidnapping victim before boiling her body parts and feeding it to lions.

Both men were deported to China in June this year.