SACP leader Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Waluś has been released on parole, according to the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services.
“Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola has placed offender Janusz Waluś on parole under strict conditions with effect from Wednesday 07 December 2022,” the department said in a statement.
The decision follows the judgment of the Constitutional Court handed down on Monday 21 November 2022. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo ordered the department to release Walus in 10 days.
Walus was only discharged from hospital on Wednesday as he has been receiving treatment after he was involved in a stabbing incident.
“The department said he will serve two years community corrections inline with the parole regime upon which he is released,” the department said.
“There is no question that offender Walus is a polarizing figure in our budding constitutional democracy, and that his release has understandably re-opened wounds among some insociety, especially the family of the late struggle icon Chris Hani”.
The ruling was followed by widespread protests led by the South African Communist Party (SACP), Cosatu and the ANC in Gauteng.
Last Friday, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) led a massive protest outside the offices of the Chief Justice in Midrand, Johannesburg.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said the Cabinet respected the Constitutional Court judgment on the release of Janusz Walus.
“We understand the pain, but at the end of the day, the future of this country lies again in the respect for the law. Because there is only one thing that connects us- it’s law. There are a lot of others that connect us, but the bottom-line connector of us is law. It is the least thing you can undermine, so because the apex court has made a decision, the Cabinet respects that,” said Gungubele.
Chris Hani’s wife Limpho Hani said the decision to instruct the Minister of Correctional Services to grant Janusz Walus parole was “diabolical”.
‘This judgement is diabolical. Chief Justice Zondo is basically saying indirectly that Waluz did well in killing my husband.”
“Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is a big disappointment. This country is finished. A foreigner came to this country to kill my husband. Today Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is vindicated,” an emotionally charged Hani said.
She decried the decision of the court and said it was more a dictatorship than a constitutional court because it failed to consider the victims.
“I do not exist. This country is finished. We are done. A foreign white man came into this country and killed my husband. I wish them the best.”
Walus killed SACP secretary-general Chris Hani in 1993 in a failed attempt to derail South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule to democratic rule.
He had been sentenced to death following his conviction in 1993, but it was later commuted to life after South Africa abolished the death penalty.
The SACP said they are appealing to the African Court on Human and people’s rights.
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