Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) shut down the N1 in protest of the release of Janusz Waluś on 1 December 2022. Photo: Twitter/@EFFGautengProv
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have caused major traffic disruptions by shutting down the busy N1 highway over Janusz Waluś’ parole.
The red berets said the protest is related to the release of South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani‘s assassin Janusz Waluś.
Waluś is expected to be released on Thursday after the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) granted him parole on 21 November.
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“We reject the parole for a war criminal and racist,” the party said in a tweet.
Members are reportedly making their way to the Office Of the Chief Justice in Midrand.
“The Highway remain[s] closed. We have arrived at the Office of The Chief Justice of South Africa,” the party said.
The EFF has slammed the ConCourt for releasing Waluś on parole.
“The Constitutional Court has been reduced an instrument of white supremacy and an insult to the struggles and pain of black people.”
The EFF‘s actions follows the march by members from the ANC and its tripartite alliance partners, the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre on Wednesday, where Janusz Waluś has been imprisoned for the past 30 years.
The Constitutional Court on 21 November ruled that Waluś be released within 10 days.
It found that the decision by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola not to grant Waluś parole in 2020 was irrational.
Waluś made several unsuccessful applications for parole, with Lamola having refused him his freedom, citing the seriousness of the crime.
The ruling by the apex court caused outrage from, among others, Hani’s widow Limpho and members of the SACP.
Waluś, a Polish immigrant, was serving a life sentence at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria for killing Hani outside his home in Boksburg on 10 April 1993, with the support of Clive Derby-Lewis.
ALSO READ: ConCourt must ‘take responsibility’ for ‘consequences’ of Janusz Waluś’ release, says EFF
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