By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Waluś was stabbed in Kgosi Mampuru prison on Tuesday afternoon and is being treated in hospital.
The stabbing of Janusz Walus comes days before he was due to be released on parole after nearly 30 years in jail.
He was allegedly stabbed by another prisoner and is in a stable condition.
Walus, 69, shot Hani in 1993 in a failed attempt to derail South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule to democratic rule.
The killing still evokes deep emotions in South Africa. Hani was regarded as the most popular politician after anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
Government and Hani’s widow Limpho vigorously opposed Walus’s attempts to gain his freedom.
But in a ruling on 21 November, Constitutional Court ordered his release within 10 days, saying the justice minister’s refusal to grant him parole was “irrational”.
In a brief statement, the prison department said it could confirm the “unfortunate stabbing incident” involving Walus.
Healthcare officials were providing him with the “necessary care”, it added.
A detailed incident report is to be provided at a later stage, but what can be stated at this point is that inmate Walus is stable and healthcare officials are providing the necessary care. Stabbing and other forms of disturbances are offences not warranted in a correctional environment and this case will be investigated.
The attack came after a monument in honour of Hani was vandalised on Saturday at the cemetery where he is buried.
African National Congress (ANC) and its allies described the incident as a “provocative attack”, and “tantamount to a continuation of Chris Hani’s assassination in the grave”.
The vandalism should be seen in the context of the court’s ruling, which had “pleased unrepentant apartheid perpetrators”, the ANC said, in a statement issued jointly with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Walus killed Hani as he picked up the newspapers outside his home in April 1993 by shooting him at point-blank range.
Walus was arrested and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life after South Africa abolished the death penalty.