By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Janusz Walus was released from prison on Wednesday to begin serving two years of parole after spending 28 years in prison for the assassination of SACP and ANC leader Chris Hani.
The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services confirmed that Walus had been placed on parole under strict conditions.
Walus was due to be paroled on 1 December, however, his release was delayed after he was stabbed in Kgosi Mampuru prison in Tshwane where he had been serving his life sentence.
The man accused of stabbing him is serving a life sentence for murder and attempted murder.
“Offender Walus was only discharged from hospital today (07 December 2022) as he had been receiving treatment after he was involved in a stabbing incident,” the ministry said.
Walus was sentenced to death for the murder of Hani in 1993, but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment after the death penalty was abolished.
After his death sentence was commuted, he became eligible for parole in 2005, and started applying to be released on parole from 2011. However, he was denied multiple times over the years.
His bid for parole was eventually successful after his legal challenge ended up in the apex court, which ordered that he be released.
In the statement, the ministry said, “there is no question that offender Walus is a polarising figure in our budding constitutional democracy, and that his release has understandably reopened wounds among some in society, especially the family of the late struggle icon Chris Hani.
“Offender Walus’ actions sought to derail the democratic project at its most critical, formative stage, when the choice of either setting the country on a sustainable path of peace, democracy and reconciliation on the one hand, or chaos, civil strife and blood-letting on the other, was constantly one bad decision away.
“His killing of Hani was unqualifiedly among those actions that sought to condemn the country to the latter fate, had it not been for the inspired leadership of our nation’s founders and the resolve of the people of South Africa.”
The ministry added that previous decisions to deny Walus parole were not made to avenge Hani, but had always been within the context of giving effect to the interests of justice, from the perspective of what the sentencing court had sought to achieve.
South Africa has one of the highest prison populations in the world. As at 1 April 2022, there were 143,223 inmates in the country’s correctional centres, of whom 96,079 had been sentenced.