‘We will drag Wallus back behind bars’

CAPE TOWN. — Janusz Walus should only be granted parole if he gives new information on the murder of Chris Hani, such as who “promised him millions” for the assassination, the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) said yesterday.

“The person with this information is the one they want to give parole,” said Fumanikile Booi, chairperson of MKMVA’s Dullah Omar region, outside the Western Cape High Court.

They handed over a memorandum for the attention of the chief justice.

“To get his parole, let him give us new information. It is what we want. That is the only thing that will settle the case. We want the person who gave him the gun and promised him the millions,” said Booi.

While former Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis was found to have given Walus the gun used to kill Hani, Booi said he believed there was more to the case.

Derby-Lewis was granted medical parole last year after he had spent more than 21 years behind bars and was dying of lung cancer.

In January last year, he was given just six more months to live. Derby-Lewis is still alive today.

Booi said Walus was only the “hand of the killer”.

“Behind (Walus’s) information is the killer,” he insisted. “If he rots in jail, then he will rot with all his lies. That is better than him driving around the cities (or going) wherever while there are families who are bleeding.”

The veterans stood in solidarity with Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha‚ who was applying for leave to appeal against last month’s judgment ordering the release of Walus on parole.

Hani was shot and killed outside his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg, on April 10 1993.

The High Court in Pretoria was expected to rule on Thursday if Masutha could appeal the court’s decision to grant him parole.

Booi warned that if Walus was granted parole, it would not mean the end of the case, just like had happened with Oscar Pistorius.

“If the courts of law don’t want to put (Walus) back behind bars, we will drag him back behind bars. Then it will be our duty,” he said.

“We are not scared of him, neither are we scared of those who sent him to do this.” — News24.