Numsa boss Jim slams ANC after Concourt grants Hani’s killer parole

THE National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has blamed the ANC for the Constitutional Court ruling to grant parole to SACP leader Chris Hani’s killer.

The union’s general secretary, Irvin Jim, criticised the judiciary for the decision, but directed most of the blame towards the ANC for failing to transform the economy and the judiciary of the country after 1994.

Jim said Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus, “had altered the cause of history by murdering Hani, who commanded enormous respect around progressive forces in the country at the time of his death. Hani was a recognised figure in the ANC and the SACP. His death in 1993 almost plunged the country into civil war, prompting Nelson Mandela to call for urgent elections to avoid bloodshed”.

“There are many who feel betrayed by the decision of the Constitutional Court, but we must not allow ourselves to be misled about who is responsible for this situation. We have a bourgeois constriction which will never transform our society for the benefit of the working-class majority. It is the ANC government that betrayed the working class because they have done everything in their power to entrench the power of a handful of unelected privileged few, at the expense of us all as the working class majority,” Jim said.

Jim said the reluctance of the ANC to deal with the injustices of the past, such as the slow return of stolen land, was an indication that Hani’s vision had been betrayed.

“The ANC refused to change the law so we can have land justice for African people who were dispossessed of their birth right through the implementation of the Land Act of 1913, which deprived generations of black people of the right to own land in the country of their birth,” Jim said.

Jim criticised the tripartite alliance for protesting outside the Constitutional Court over the decision to set Walus free. He described it as “hypocritical since the ANC had state power to overturn the remnants of apartheid laws”.

“This is why we are disgusted by the hypocrisy of the ANC and its alliance partners,” Jim said.

He criticised the decision to march and challenge the Constitutional Court as “opportunistic”.

This comes after the SACP and Cosatu over the weekend protested against the release of Walus.

The Star understands that his South African citizenship had been revoked.

ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe was not available for comment yesterday afternoon.