Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
The aftermath of Chris Hani’s murder in the transition to democracy
THE last words Khwezi Hani spoke to her father were: “Hey, Daddy, he is greeting you.” As Chris Hani turned to wave at the stranger greeting him from the street on that grim Saturday in April 1993, he came face to face with his assassin, who “never said a word”.
In that instant, Janus Walus – a far-right, anti-communist, Polish immigrant – pulled the trigger of the pistol lent to him by Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis. They were fatal shots.
Hani’s death cost the South African Communist Party its leader, and the country a figure most regarded as a principled devotee of the transition. By an undoubtedly generous accident of fate (in light of the potential for racial fury), the shots were heard by “a white neighbour” in Hani’s Dawn Park, Boksburg suburb, who “saw a red car, believed to be a Ford Laser, took the registration number and called the police”. Walus was soon arrested, DerbyLewis some time later.
The murder came close to derailing the country’s makeor- break democracy project. It took the measured – presidential (before he was president) – intervention of Nelson Mandela to restore faith in the negotiations process.
The following excerpts from reports, a day after the killing, give an idea of the atmosphere of the immediate aftermath. It is a measure of the success of the transition that the Weekend Argus reporter referred to in the second article is the father of Proteas star Temba Bavuma, the first black African cricketer to score a Test century for South Africa.
South Africa’s main negotiating parties are working flat out to prevent the assassination of Mr Chris Hani from killing the constitutional talks as well.
Negotiations hang by a thread, depending on whether the alleged killer is a maverick or was acting with some sort of official or third-force backing – Deputy Law and Order Minister Mr Gert Myburgh says the suspect appeared to be acting on his own.
The greatest threat to negotiations could be anger at grassroots level with the ANC/ SACP/Cosatu alliance demanding some sort of retribution for the murder of Mr Hani who was widely regarded as second in popularity only to ANC leader Mr Nelson Mandela.
“The murder of Chris Hani is a setback for the constitu- tional negotiation process,” government chief negotiator Mr Roelf Meyer acknowledged, adding that Mr Hani had been a committed negotiator.
Top ANC sources said: “We will try our level best to keep negotiations on track”.
April 11, 1993
UNREST erupted in some of the Peninsula townships with burning barricades put across roads and several cars being stoned as the news of Mr Chris Hani’s assassination spread.
Weekend Argus reporter Vuyo Bavuma was stopped at a barricade in Zola Budd Drive, Khayelitsha and four youths with bricks and stones wanted to know to which organisation he belonged.
On replying that he did not belong to any organisation, he was told that the time had come to take sides. The youths wanted to know if the car he was driving belonged to “your bosses”.
Bavuma denied this and showed them his Press card. At that moment a security van drove past. The youths stoned the van when it refused to stop at the barricade. Shortly thereafter the police arrived on the scene and Bavuma drove off.