EDITORIAL: How to deal with the assassin Waluś’s parole

The decision to release Janus Waluś, the assassin of SACP leader Chris Hani, was always going to be controversial. But it has finally been made by the highest court in the land — and we are now all duty-bound to respect it and deal with its fallout.       

On Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled that the assassin should be released on parole after serving a significant part of his life sentence behind bars. His co-conspirator, right-wing politician Clive Derby-Lewis, who ordered the hit on Hani, was freed years earlier and allowed to die in the company of his family.

Efforts to secure Waluś’s release over the years were resisted by the Hani family, the government, the law courts and the SACP.  On Monday, however, his fortunes changed when the apex court set aside a 2020 decision by justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola to refuse the Polish immigrant parole.

This killer has been a divisive figure in SA politics, especially within the governing alliance. First, it has never been clear that Waluś disclosed everything about the plot and the assassination of Hani, and this has been a source of great discomfort to Hani’s family and comrades inside the alliance. Second, it was never conclusively established that the two convicts acted alone. Third, there has always been the worrying suspicion that the pair might have received assistance from Hani’s enemies inside the liberation movements and outside SA’s borders, especially those who feared Hani’s communist credentials after the end of apartheid. And lastly and of greater concern, the use of a foreign national to execute the hit has added credence to all of the preceding theories.

Understandably, both the SACP and Hani’s wife Limpho Hani are angry at the court’s ruling. We too are disappointed. As well as the continued attacks on unarmed black South Africans by the apartheid security forces even after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the unbanning of the liberation movements in the early 1990s, Hani’s assassination nearly brought the country to full-blown civil war.

It would take Mandela’s goodwill and leadership to stop the country from descending into chaos. It is against this background that his release has to be seen.

Hani has cursed Raymond Zondo, the chief justice, after the court’s decision on Monday. Again, this is understandable, but it is unhelpful to frame the decision in personal terms.

While disappointed that this cold-blooded killer will be a free man in 10 days and that South Africans and the Hani family may never know the full truth and identity of other architects of Hani’s killing, this newspaper believes in the rule of law. The highest court in our land has pronounced itself loud and clear. We have to respect its judgment. We urge the law enforcement authorities to abide by the decision of the Constitutional Court.

We stand with the Hani family at this time. While the criminal matter has reached its conclusion, the Hani family still has civil remedies it can pursue against the murderer.

To help the country heal from the trauma of the assassination, including this week’s decision, we urge the law enforcement authorities to ensure that Waluś, who was stripped of his SA citizenship five years ago, is deported to his country soon after his release.

While Mandela helped defuse the threat of a racial war in 1993, there is no guarantee that Waluś’s release will not ignite violence, especially if he remains in the country. Unfortunately, as we learnt last July in the civil unrest that erupted after the incarceration of Jacob Zuma, we no longer have Mandela among us; and, more disturbing, we have produced no leaders who can defuse racially explosive situations as might be provoked by Waluś’s release.

Finally, the deportation of Waluś is no commentary on Polish people and their government. It is a condemnation of one sick individual who happens to be of Polish descent. His deportation should not be allowed to chill relations with Poland.