The Constitutional Court has dismissed an application that sought to reverse its ruling on the release of the Polish immigrant who killed Chris Hani, Janusz Waluś.
In the application, Hani’s wife Limpho Hani, and the SACP claimed that the court erred after it declared Waluś legible for parole. The Limpho and the SACP wanted the apex court to declare that its judgment had a “patent error”, noting that it did not “analyse or examine the applicants’ submissions”.
However, the Constitutional Court has ruled that “the applicants have failed to make out a case for rescission reconsideration”.
Limpho and the SACP filed their application after the Department of Correctional Services confirmed that Waluś had officially been released under “strict conditions” on Wednesday. His release was warranted by the Constitutional Court, which deemed him fit for parole after he had served 29 years of his life imprisonment sentence.
Waluś’ release was met with harsh criticism by the tripartite alliance comprising the ANC, SACP and trade union federation Cosatu, who gathered at the Constitutional Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg last week to picket against the court ruling.
Limpho has been saying during engagements with the media that the release of Waluś is tantamount to killing her husband all over again. According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the decision to release Hani’s assassin is disappointing, to say the least.
However, the department said its decision is not “in the spirit of avenging a stalwart of our liberation struggle, but it has always been within the context of giving effect to the interests of justice, from the perspective of what the sentencing court sought to achieve”.
“There is no question that offender Waluś 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 Waluś’ 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,” it said.
Waluś gunned down Hani at his home in Dawn Park near Boksburg, on the east of Johannesburg in April 1993, in what the rightwingers thought would derail plans for the country’s first democratic election in 1994.
Also read: SACP not backing down, wants Janusz Waluś back in his jail cell
Janusz Waluś walks out of prison hospital straight to freedom
Constitutional Court erred in ordering Walus’ release
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