Protesters march to Kgosi Mampuru prison to oppose Walus parole

South Africa, Friday 1 April 2016 - 1:53pm

SAPS public order policing sealed off the entrance to the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services Centre in Pretoria on 1 April 2016. Photo: ANA

PRETORIA – Public order policing members sealed off the entrance to the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services Centre in Pretoria on Friday as hundreds of protesters arrived at the prison, demanding that the decision granting parole to Chris Hani's assassin Janusz Walus be reviewed.

Numerous busy roads in Pretoria central were blocked by police as members of African National Congress-aligned organisations, including the SA Communist Party, Young Communist League and the SA Congress of Trade Unions marched from the city centre to the prison.

Two police Nyalas were parked at the main entrance to the huge correctional facility.

A statement issued by the protesting organisations on Thursday said their march also supported the decision of the Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha, to appeal against the court order granting Walus freedom.

This week, the ministry of justice said it had filed an appeal against Janus's parole.

"The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Adv Michael Masutha, has decided to appeal against the judgment delivered by the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria on 10 March 2016," it said.

The court had set aside the minister's refusal to grant the Polish immigrant's parole and ordered him to set parole conditions within 14 days of the judgment.

Walus shot dead Hani, the charismatic leader of the South African Communist Party, 23 years ago.

"The legal representatives of the minister have today filed and served a notice of application for leave to appeal against the judgment with the registrar of the high court," justice ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said.

"The minister believes that the honourable court erred in its judgment and is of the view that there are prospects of success on appeal and that the Appeal Court will arrive at a different conclusion."

Walus, 63, who left then communist Poland in 1981 to join his father and brother in South Africa, shot and killed Hani on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1993 – a year before the country's first democratic elections brought Nelson Mandela and the ANC to power.

Walus was initially sentenced to death, but this was converted to life in prison after the abolition of capital punishment.

The court order has caused outrage, amid calls for Walus to be immediately deported to Poland.

The ruling ANC termed the court's decision "extremely insensitive" and said it ignored the fact that Hani's murder had brought South Africa to the brink of civil war as the country was emerging from apartheid rule.

- Africa News Agency