By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Communist Party (SACP) gathered to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Chris Hani’s assassination, and the leader’s widow Limpho Hani did not mince her words in chastising those who played a role in the release of her husband’s killer.
Speaking at the Thomas Titus Nkobi Memorial Park in Germiston on Monday 10 April, Hani said that according to the South African courts, her husbands killer Janusz Walus was “suddenly” a nice person who deserved to be released early.
“This system allowed this criminal to continue with life while he took away my husband and your comrade. Surely Chris’ life should be worth something to the country and law,” Hani said.
Walus was released a week later in December last year after the Constitutional Court ordered Justice Minister Ronald Lamola to release the murderer who gunned down the SACP leader, in the driveway of his Boksburg home in 1993.
Waluś, has been attempting to secure parole since becoming eligible in 2005. This has been met with strong opposition from Hani’s family and the SACP.
The party has since launched an online petition, calling for a fresh inquest into Hani’s killing.
It says the Constitutional Court has failed to protect communists by releasing an ideologically driven assassin, who is not ready to speak the absolute truth.
Party leader Solly Mapaila said they had already collected 20,000 signatures in support of their call.
He said he hoped the list would grow to 30,000 to mark the 30th-anniversary commemoration.
Walus will not be allowed to leave South Africa as part of his parole conditions.
In her lengthy address on Monday, Hani’s widow lambasted Chief Justice Raymond Zondo for ruling in favour of Walus’ release.
“Zondo did not care. This time our hearts are broken. Those in power say that our loss is too little and that the killer of our family and dreams meant more.
” I do not accept that we must just get over it, ” she said.
She went further saying that ANC leader Oliver Tambo was “turning in his grave” knowing that Hani’s killer was released.
“The Chief Justice is not a chief induna. He attacked Tambo when he released Janusz.
“Parole was unfair and unwarranted.
“This is not an event for us, it’s a lifetime of hell on Earth,” she added.
Hani at the time of his death, Hani was born in 1942 to a poor family in the southern Eastern Cape province.
He went on to study Latin and classical literature at university, and quickly got involved in the liberation movement.
Hani was of one the first to join Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) and he soon gained a reputation for challenging the ANC leadership.
Meanwhile, South Africans have grown ever more despondent at the state of a country battered by a stagnant economy, mounting crime, dizzying unemployment rates and blackouts.
Many blame, at least in part, graft and corruption, yearning for a time when leaders like Hani seemed selfless and uninterested in clout and privilege.
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