Janusz Jakub Waluś ( , ; born 14 January 1953) is a Goral Polish right-wing extremist convicted of the 1993 assassination of Chris Hani, General Secretary of the

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing N ...

and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC). He held dual Polish-

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

n citizenship from 1986 until his South African citizenship was revoked in 2017. Initially sentenced to death for Hani's murder, Waluś's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he was held at C-Max in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

. Waluś was refused

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

four times, before the Constitutional Court ordered his release on parole in November 2022. His parole was delayed for nearly a week after he was attacked in prison, and he was released on 7 December 2022.

Early life

Janusz Waluś was born in

Zakopane Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been ...

in Communist-ruled Poland and, in 1981, emigrated to South Africa to join his father and brother, who had arrived in South Africa in the 1970s and established a small glass factory. After the family business went bankrupt some years later, Waluś, then a truck driver, joined both the National Party and the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, becoming more and more involved in the

far-right politics Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

supporting South Africa's

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

regime.

Assassination of Chris Hani

The

assassination of Chris Hani Chris Hani, General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was assassinated by right-wing extremist Janusz Waluś on 10 April 1993. The assassination, later tied to members within the Conservative Party, occurred outside Hani's ...

took place on Easter Saturday, 10 April 1993, a time when negotiations to end apartheid were taking place. Waluś drove to Chris Hani's house in Boksburg,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, around 10:20 am. Hani had just returned home and, as he got out of his car, Waluś called out his name, at which Hani turned around and was shot once in the body and then three times in the head. Hani died on the scene, while Waluś fled. A neighbour noted the registration of the car fleeing the scene, which resulted in Waluś's capture. Although Waluś denied any participation in the assassination, he made the mistake of assuming one of the policemen was a right-winger and exposed his own story. Thorough investigation revealed that

Clive Derby-Lewis Clive John Derby-Lewis (22 January 1936 – 3 November 2016) was a South African politician, who was involved first in the National Party and then, while serving as a member of parliament, in the Conservative Party. In 1993 he was convicted ...

had instigated the assassination and organized the acquisition of the weapon for Waluś. The police found a hit-list that suggested Hani was the third target on Waluś's and Derby-Lewis's list, which also included the names and addresses of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

and Joe Slovo, among others.

Sentencing and parole hearings

Janusz Waluś and Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death for their actions, but after the abolition of the death penalty in South Africa their sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. With the introduction of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid, Waluś applied for amnesty, which would give him parole. After extensive investigation the commission found that he and Derby-Lewis were not acting on higher orders and refused amnesty; he remained in prison. Clive Derby-Lewis was released from prison on medical parole in June 2015 after serving 22 years; he died on November 3, 2016, from lung cancer. On 10 March 2016, the High Court in

ruled that Waluś should be released on parole. The Department of Home Affairs indicated in September 2016 that Waluś would be stripped of his South African citizenship and deported back to Poland if he was released on parole. In May 2017, Justice Minister

Michael Masutha Tshililo Michael Masutha is a South African advocate and retired politician. He was born in Valdezia in 1965 in Northern Transvaal, what is now Limpopo province, in South Africa. He is the former Minister of Justice and Correctional Services. Bef ...

introduced an application to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to overturn Waluś's parole. Meeting on 29 May, the court reserved judgment in the case, citing a procedural irregularity involving the Hani family's victim impact statement. During the hearing, Waluś's advocate, Roelof du Plessis, stated that his client's South African citizenship had been revoked by the Department of Home Affairs "just a few weeks" earlier, and that a warrant for his deportation had been issued. On 18 August 2017, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned Waluś's parole, a decision that was welcomed by the SACP. On 16 March 2020, Waluś was again denied parole by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola. Waluś appealed the decision to the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg. In his filing, he claimed remorse for Hani's murder and recognized apartheid had failed. Hani's widow Limpho continued to oppose his release, believing his admission of remorse to be insincere, and pointing out that other convicted assassins (such as James Earl Ray, the accused murderer of Martin Luther King Jr.) spent the rest of their lives in prison. In November 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Waluś's appeal against these decisions and ordered that he be released on parole. Limpho Hani condemned the court's decision as "diabolical". Initially scheduled for release on 1 December, he was stabbed and wounded in jail on 29 November, and his parole delayed while he recovered. On 7 December 2022, Waluś was discharged from the hospital and officially released on parole under "strict conditions". His parole period will last for two years, during which time he is barred from leaving South Africa.

Aftermath

Waluś has been used as a symbol by the

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of bein ...

in Poland due to his opposition to

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

in South Africa. Football fans displayed banners and scarves with Waluś's name and photo, amid calls for his release from prison. In 2018, a Polish journalist who spoke to Walus reported that "in 1993, there was a war in South Africa and he felt like a soldier... He still believes in the system of racial segregation and that whites and blacks should live apart."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walus, Janusz 1953 births 20th-century Polish criminals Living people People convicted of murder by South Africa People from Zakopane Polish anti-communists Polish assassins Polish emigrants to South Africa Polish people convicted of murder Polish people imprisoned abroad Polish prisoners sentenced to death Prisoners sentenced to death by South Africa South African anti-communists South African assassins South African people convicted of murder South African prisoners sentenced to death People who testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa) 1993 murders in Europe 1993 murders in South Africa

Early life

Assassination of Chris Hani

Sentencing and parole hearings

Aftermath

See also

References