The North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday reserved judgement in the application by the Justice and Correctional Services Minister, Michael Masutha, for leave to appeal against an earlier High Court judgment which ordered the release of Janusz Walus who killed South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani.
After listening to submissions from the ministry’s legal counsel, headed by advocate Marumo Moerane SC, and all other respondents, Justice Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen said she needed until Thursday to prepare and deliver her judgement in the matter.
Hani was shot and killed by Walus on Easter Sunday, 10 April, 1993. Walus was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in October 1993, but this was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Walus’s application to be released on parole was initially turned down by Masutha, after which he sought the intervention of the high court to make a ruling for him to be released on parole.
His erstwhile co-accused Clive Derby-Lewis, who was also given a life sentence, was released on medical parole last year.
On 10 March, the High Court ordered that Walus be released on parole within 14 days, prompting Masutha to apply for leave to appeal.
Hani’s wife Limpho Hani was at the Palace of Justice on Tuesday where she publicly reiterated the Hani family’s opposition to Walus being granted parole because he was “unrepentant”, had not shown any remorse, nor revealed the reasons he killed her husband.
Justice Ministry spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said the ministry hoped that their application for leave to appeal the High Court order that Walus be released on parole was granted so that their opposition to his release on parole could be heard in a higher court.
Mhaga further said they welcomed the judge’s decision not to hear an application for Walus to be placed on parole with conditions, while the decision over granting leave to appeal was still outstanding.
“Of importance to us is finding comfort in counsel articulating meticulously the substantive ground upon which we are applying for leave to appeal, which we have also indicated earlier that, even on Thursday, whichever way the ruling goes; if there is an application for the earlier order to be executed, that being that Mr Walus be placed on parole with conditions.
“We would oppose that as well as because it defeats the very purpose of the same application, which is why we welcome the judge’s decision not to hear that application today,” said Mhaga.
Mhaga reiterated that the magnitude and gravity of the crime Walus committed, the remarks of the trial court and subsequently the remarks of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) weighed heavily in the arguments that the ministry’s legal counsel would put forward in the appeal.
Meanwhile, the second deputy general secretary of the SACP, Solly Mapaila said: “The core fact here is that Walus is an unrepentant murderer, who seek to be released through subverting the law, of course because he got resources and he is able to exhaust them to this level; but we are confident at the arguments that the minister’s legal team has advanced.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
