ConCourt orders Chris Hani’s murderer Janusz Walus to be released on parole

Protestors march through the streets after Chris Hani's assassination on 14 April 1993. (Photo: Gallo Images / Media24 Newspaper Archives)

By Victoria O’Regan

21 Nov 2022

Nearly three decades after being jailed, and following years of failed attempts to be released on parole, the Polish immigrant — who assassinated the anti-apartheid activist and South African Communist Party leader in 1993 – has been granted parole by the Constitutional Court.

The highest court in South Africa on Monday ruled that Chris Hani’s assassin — Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, who has been behind bars for 28 years — should be released on parole.

Handing down judgement on Monday afternoon, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said that Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola’s decision to refuse parole to Walus in March 2020 was “irrational” and should be reviewed and set aside.

Zondo said more than 15 years had passed since Walus had become eligible for parole.

The Constitutional Court ordered Lamola to place Walus on parole “on such terms and conditions as he may deem appropriate”, and to ensure that Walus is released on parole within 10 days of this ruling.

The court ordered Minister Lamola to pay for Walus’ legal costs in the Constitutional Court, as well as the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Walus assassinated Hani outside his home in Boksburg on 10 April 1993.

The assassination of the anti-apartheid activist and South African Communist Party (SACP) leader brought the country to the brink of a civil war, at a time when the process of negotiating the transition from apartheid to democracy was at its most delicate.

Protestors march through the streets after Chris Hani's assassination on 14 April 1993. Secretary-General of the South African Communist Party Chris Hani was assassinated on 14 April 1993. Approximately 1.5 million people participated in the protests and marches that followed his assassination. In October 1993, Clive Derby-Lewis of the Conservative Party and a Polish immigrant, Janusz Walus, were found guilty for Hani's murder, and were sentenced to death. (Photo: Gallo Images / Media24 Newspaper Archives)

Walus was convicted in October 1993 of murder and illegal possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to death for the murder and to five years in prison on the firearm charge. His co-conspirator, and former Conservative Party MP, the late Clive Derby-Lewis was convicted of conspiracy to murder and was also sentenced to death for his role in plotting Hani’s assassination.

Read in Daily Maverick: "Chris Hani and the Arms Deal bombshell: A death that still hangs over us"

In 1999, Walus and Derby-Lewis were also refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, on the grounds that they had “failed to make a full disclosure” about the circumstances surrounding the ordering of Hani’s murder, and had “failed to prove the killing was politically motivated.”

Following the abolishment of the death penalty in South Africa in 1995, their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment on 7 November 2000.

Derby-Lewis, who supplied Walus with the murder weapon, succumbed to cancer and died in hospital in 2016, after he was released on medical parole from Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in June 2015. He had served 21 years in prison and had for years campaigned for his release on parole.

Read in Daily Maverick: The blood of Chris Hani and the eternal damnation of Clive Derby-Lewis

Walus has made several attempts to secure parole, all of which were vehemently opposed by the Hani family and the SACP, and all of which have failed. He became eligible for parole in 2005 after serving 13 years and four months of his life sentence.

On 16 March 2020, one of his more recent attempts to be released on parole was refused by Justice Minister Lamola. This came after the Pretoria high court in December 2019, ordered Lamola to reconsider within 60 days the decision taken in January 2019 by former Minister Michael Masutha, to refuse granting parole to Walus.

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At the time Walus’ March 2020 bid for parole was denied, Lamola had said it is clear that the political assassination of the late Hani was executed with the intention to create mayhem in the country.

“Considering this fact, placing offender Walus on parole would negate the severity that the court sought when sentencing him. With this premise, and balancing both negative and positive factors, the placement on parole for offender Walus is not approved at this stage,” said the Minister.

Walus remained undeterred by Lamola’s decision, and attempted to take it on review in the Pretoria high court, but Judge Elizabeth Kubushi dismissed his application, finding it without substance. He then approached the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) where his leave to appeal was again refused on the grounds that the matter had no reasonable prospects of success, and there was no compelling reasons why it should be heard.

Walus eventually brought an application to the Constitutional Court to review Lamola’s decision in March 2020, which was heard in February 2022. Lamola, Hani’s widow, Limpho Hani and the SACP opposed the application.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-02-22-hani-killer-janusz-walus-takes-parole-bid-to-concourt-urges-ubuntu/

Judgement in the matter was reserved to Monday 21 November.

“The appeal before this court, has to take into account the fact that the applicant (Walus) was convicted of a very serious crime, that it was cold-blooded murder, that the applicant had been involved in planning the crime over a number of weeks, and that his conduct nearly plunged this country into civil unrest, and that in assassinating the late Hani the applicant and Derby-Lewis seemed to have been intent on derailing the attainment of democracy by this country,” said Zondo on Monday.

However, he added that these are “not the only factors to be taken into account.”

Zondo said the Constitutional Court must take into account that Walus fell into a category of prisoners whose parole dispensation is governed by the 1959 Act, which stipulated that the minimum period that an applicant such as Walus has to serve before being considered for parole, was 20 years.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika after Monday’s proceedings, Hani’s widow, Limpho Hani called the court’s decision to release Walus on parole, “diabolical.” DM

[WATCH] Chris Hani's widow Limpho Hani reacts to the Constitutional Court's decision to release his killer, Janusz Walus on parole.#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/j2BGNl8j23

— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) November 21, 2022

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