The Constitutional Court has ordered the Ministry of Justice to release former SACP General Secretary Chris Hani Janusz Walus on parole.
Walus appealed to the Supreme Court to review and overturn Minister Ronald Lamola’s refusal to grant him parole.
It was Walus’ fifth attempt at parole since his first application in 2011.
The president of the court, Raymond Zonda, read out the unanimous decision.
“The decision of the Minister of Justice and Execution of Penalties, adopted in March 2020, on the rejection of the petition for conditional early release, has been revised and canceled. The Secretary of Justice and Correctional Services is ordered to grant the applicant parole on such conditions as he deems appropriate and to take all steps necessary to secure the applicant’s parole within 10 calendar days. days from the date of issuance of this order.”
[Strong Language] Limpho Hani, wife of Chris Hani, reacts to ConCourt’s decision to grant parole to Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus. Mam’uHani says, referring to CJ Zonda’s ruling: “In South Africa, they are gods, all they say is, yeah, you know about karma, I give them two years.” pic.twitter.com/1PySKidJa0
— SABC News (@SABCNews) November 21, 2022
Human rights lawyer Richard Spoor previously accused authorities of double standards in the way they handled Walush’s parole application.
Spoor says several of Walush’s parole applications have been denied despite being a model inmate.
“He went through counseling, he apologized, he renounced his ideology, the far-right ideology. It is very difficult to give every other example of his behavior. There is nothing to suggest that he was not telling the truth. Two people were arrested, two people were convicted, he and Clive Derby-Lewis. Derby-Lewis was released on his deathbed. Asking someone to tell the truth because of a conspiracy theory and insisting there’s something bigger behind it, I don’t think that’s a strong argument.”
LIVE | Janusz Walusz’s latest attempt to get parole in the Constitutional Court:
