Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Chris Hani’s killer Walus seeks review of parole denial
JANUSZ Walus, the gunman who killed Struggle icon Chris Hani, will seek a High Court review of Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha’s decision to deny him parole.
Walus’s lawyer Julian Knight told Independent Media yesterday they wanted Masutha’s decision set aside and an order that his client be released on parole. He said the review application would be brought within the next month.
Yesterday, Masutha declined Walus’s parole application which was brought on the 22nd anniversary of Hani’s assassination on April 10, 2015. Masutha said the Polish immigrant had not shown remorse for killing Hani.
His co- accused, rightwinger Clive Derby-Lewis, died last year after being granted medical parole in 2015.
“He (Walus) still rationalises his actions and insists that they were politically motivated. His ideas about communism still stand,” Masutha said.
He said Walus had expressed remorse for leaving the SACP general secretary’s children fatherless and his wife, Limpho Hani, a widow.
Limpho Hani believes Walus remains anti-communist.
SACP first deputy general-secretary Solly Mapaila said Masutha had made a good decision on solid legal grounds to deny parole.
He said Walus had not been truthful to the party, the Hani family and the South African public.
“This is an abuse of legal processes and we reject it with the contempt it deserves,” said Mapaila of Walus’s plan to seek a review.
He said the SACP, which with Limpho Hani had opposed Walus’s parole bid, would continue opposing the killer’s quest for freedom from prison.
According to Mapaila, Walus was like Derby-Lewis, who after his release on medical parole made a video of himself praising apartheid and reaffirming his hatred for communists.
Masutha said Walus had showed no remorse for Hani’s assassination because he was a communist and still rationalised his actions.
Although Masutha said Walus had not acquired any academic and vocational skills during his more than two decades in prison and when he applied for parole at the North Gauteng High Court last year the killer said he had a letter from his brother, Tshwane businessman Witold Walus, offering him a job at his company Drakensberg Truck Manufacturers.
A social worker’s report filed at the high court stated that Walus had completed matric in Poland in 1977, worked as a glass cutter and had a business with his father.
Masutha said Walus should participate in an individual therapeutic programme with social workers to improve his assertiveness, decision- making skills, beliefs and behavioural patterns that lead to aggression.
But the report revealed that Walus kept himself busy by exercising in the prison gym, attended individual therapy sessions with a social worker and was intensively involved in individual social work intervention programmes.
The report said Walus showed no signs of psychological disorders or disabilities and expressed remorse about Hani and his family.
The social worker’s report said Walus had written a letter asking to be involved in victim offender dialogue and wanted to apologise to Hani’s family.
Another report by a unit manager at Tshwane’s C-Max prison, where Walus is serving time, showed that the manager was positive about Walus’s behaviour and adaptation.
The unit manager recommended day parole for Walus.
Masutha denied political considerations influenced his decision to deny Walus parole, saying he looked at what was brought before him and make rational sense of it.
He said Walus presented a potential risk and that a security risk assessment needed to be conducted.
Masutha will reconsider his decision to deny Walus parole within 24 months.