No comment from Hani’s widow on new Walus bid

Limpho Hani‚ widow of murdered SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani‚ is keeping mum on the parole application of her late husband’s killer.

Janusz Walus launched his third parole application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Hani‚ approached for comment‚ said the family only commented through their lawyer: “We are not commenting.”

Walus is appealing to be released on parole and deported to his home country, Poland.

Walus’s lawyer, Roelof du Plessis, argued earlier on Tuesday that his client had been unfairly prejudiced by justice & correctional services minister Michael Masutha‚ along with the parole board chair.

He claimed they had ignored multiple recommendations for Walus to be released.

Du Plessis said it was normal procedure for prisoners who had their citizenship revoked‚ as Walus had‚ to be deported.

“I am not casting aspersions on the minister‚ but he is trying every reason not to grant Walus parole. One needs to look at what was before the minister and what he did and did not look at‚” he said.

In August 2017‚ Du Plessis said, the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered that Masutha had to reconsider Walus’s parole.

Masutha then denied Walus parole in November 2017.

Du Plessis said: “Documents from the parole board showed [that] Walus was a suitable candidate for parole.

“Everyone on the board said he was suitable for parole.

“But the chairman of the board wrote an extensive report saying why Walus should be refused parole.”

He said illustrations of Walus’s application being manipulated so he was not granted parole included a letter the chair of the board wrote to his client requesting him to provide evidence of the course he had completed while in prison.

“This included requests on anger management.

“The request letter was sent on November 6 2017‚ yet the chairman had written his report saying why Walus should not be granted parole on November 3 2017.”

He said Walus’s prison case managers had written that he was the epitome of what correctional behaviour was.

“None of this was referenced to in the reports by the minister or the parole board chairman.

“Walus has shown remorse for what he did‚ yet the minister argues that if you don’t change your views on communism‚ you will go out again and kill communists‚ which is ridiculous.”