By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
The Constitutional Court has set down a date to hear Janusz Walus’ appeal for parole.
This after the High Court in Pretoria denied Walus parole earlier this year.
Walus is currently serving a life sentence for shooting South African Communist Party (SACP) secretary-general Chris Hani outside his Dawn Park home in 1993.
His lawyer Julian Knight says the Apex Court will hear the matter on 22 February next year.
“We’d rather not go into the merits of the matter, but it does relate to the various court cases that we have brought on his behalf and the failure to grant parole to him,” says Knight.
“Further to that I don’t want to get into the merits,”Knight adds.
The 68-year-old’s bid for freedom has failed on numerous accounts, including last year when Justice Minister Ronald Lamola turned him down.
Lamola said he considered a number of factors “such as the nature and seriousness of the crime of the cold-blooded political assassination committed by offender Walus”.
“Placing offender Walus on parole would negate the severity the court sought when sentencing him.”
“With this premise and balancing the positive and negative factors, the placement on parole for offender Walus is not approved at this stage, said Lamola.
In March 2020, the High Court in Pretoria ordered Lamola to reconsider within 60 days the decision taken in January 2019 by former minister Michael Masutha to refuse granting of parole to Walus.
Hani’s widow and daughter have been integral in the blocking of parole. Speaking at a commemoration ceremony held in Hani’s honour in 2018, his daughter Lindiwe said she could not get over apartheid because those who were behind it have never apologised for the wrong that they did.
Walus, however, had penned a letter to Hani’s wife and children and apologised.