South Africa to deport Chris Hani's Assassin Janus...

South Africa to deport Chris Hani's Assassin Janusz Walus to Poland after parole

Zim Now Writer

South Africa will deport Janusz Walus, the far-right extremist who assassinated anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani in 1993, to his native Poland on Friday, according to the government. Walus, 71, served nearly three decades of a life sentence for the murder, which was a pivotal moment in the country’s transition to democracy.

Released on parole in 2022, his freedom reignited tensions in South Africa, where many viewed it as reopening painful wounds from the apartheid era. Having completed his parole period as mandated by the Constitutional Court, Walus will now be deported, with the costs covered by the Polish embassy.

Walus, who emigrated from Poland to South Africa in 1981, lost his South African citizenship following his conviction. During South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, he admitted to assassinating Hani to prevent communists and radicals from gaining influence.

Hani, a senior African National Congress figure and head of the South African Communist Party, was killed outside his Johannesburg home, a moment that nearly derailed negotiations for a democratic South Africa.

The government acknowledged Hani's death as a turning point that ultimately accelerated the end of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic South Africa. "Every year that we celebrate Freedom Day... we are in large part indebted to Chris Hani," the government stated.

South African officials emphasized that the deportation is in compliance with a Constitutional Court decision, not a government initiative. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni clarified, "This is not a decision of the government. This is a decision of the Constitutional Court, and we are merely abiding by that decision."

The move is expected to close a chapter on a highly divisive figure whose actions left a lasting scar on South Africa’s history. However, debates surrounding racial reconciliation and justice remain a contentious part of the nation’s discourse.