- ANC and SACP leaders led a protest to Kgosi Mampuru prison to express their unhappiness at the pending release on parole of Chris Hani’s killer Januzs Waluz.
- Nomvula Mokonyane called for the gravesite of Hani to be turned into a national monument.
- She also demanded that the Department of Home Affairs release the address where Waluz would be serving his parole sentence.
ANC national executive committee member Nomvula Mokonyane suggested that South Africans would not be opposed to the release of the prison inmate who stabbed Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus.
She made the remarks as hundreds of ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) supporters marched to the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services in Pretoria on Wednesday against Walus’ pending release on Thursday.
They chanted struggle songs as they marched in the burning heat.
READ | ‘We want him to know South Africans are still angry’: ANC, partners protest against Walus release
Walus murdered SACP leader Hani in 1993. He was granted parole last week when the Constitutional Court ruled that he should have already been released on parole.
The SACP, ANC and the Hani family protested the Constitutional Court decision.
Wednesday’s march was part of a string of protests that the SACP and the ANC have held since the ruling. On Saturday, they held a protest outside Constitutional Hill.
Mokonyane said:
If the people of South Africa had to choose who to release between Janusz and the person that scratched you, we would choose the person that scratched you.
The inmate who stabbed Walus has been identified as former SA Air Force sergeant Samuel Mandla Madonsela, News24 reported. He is serving a life sentence for the murder of Lieutenant-Colonel Authon Dominic Stevens.
Mokonyane also demanded that Walus’ address be made public. She did not clarify what purpose the publication of this address would be used for, but the crowd responded with cheers.
“We ask for Janusz’s address. We know he is in our neighbourhood. We will go and say good morning, neighbour,” Mokonyane said through a loudspeaker.
READ | Blood spills on eve of ANC-led protest against release of Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus
She also called for the gravesite of Hani to be turned into a national monument. The gravesite was recently vandalised.
“We are also demanding that the gravesite of Chris Hani must be a national monument, starting with the province.
“He did not die in vain, the blood that was spilt pushed forward the date of the elections,” Mokonyane said.
SACP leader Solly Mapaila said the rescission application filed at the Constitutional Court to reverse the parole judgment was important. The party filed its court application on Tuesday.
Mapaila joined Mokonyane in calls for an inquest to further probe the mystery behind Walus’ involvement in the murder of Hani and its motives. Walus was stabbed in prison Tuesday, days before he was set for release.
Mokonyane and Mapaila said the protest was part of a string of mass-action protests until April when they will commemorate the killing of Hani.
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