ACTIVISTS have blasted the South African Constitutional Court’s order on Monday to release Janusz Walus, the man who killed anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani.

Mr Hani was killed in 1993 outside his home in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, in an assassination that threatened to plunge South Africa into political violence ahead of its transition from white-minority rule to democracy.

He was the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and general secretary of the South African Communist Party.

Mr Walus, a Polish citizen, was sentenced to life in prison and his applications to be released on parole have been rejected by several justice ministers.

He was convicted alongside Clive Derby-Lewis, who was released on medical parole in 2015 and died the following year.

Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court delivered a unanimous judgement in favour of Mr Walus after reviewing a 2020 decision to reject his application.

The court ruled Mr Walus should be placed on parole in the next 10 days as he had met the threshold for this. Judges described the minister’s decision to reject his application as irrational.

But the widow of Mr Hani, Limpho Hani, was furious at the decision.

She blasted Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who delivered the judgement, saying: “The court has not even addressed the victims. I don’t exist. He is busy giving us a lecture about a Polish man who came to South Africa to kill my husband. Do you understand how I feel?

“Chief Justice Zondo has failed this country completely and I am not going to apologise. In this country, a foreign white can come into South Africa and kill my husband.

“I have never seen something like this in my life,” she said, noting the key role the murder and reaction to it played in the last days of apartheid.

“Mandela, after my husband was murdered, said to [FW] de Klerk for us to stop this [a violent upheaval], give us an election date.

“That is why Zondo and his friends today are sitting in this court.”

Current Communist Party general secretary Solly Mapaila said: “The Constitutional Court is a court of democracy, it cannot be upholding apartheid injustice.

“This is an injustice by the highest court.”

Mr Walus became eligible for parole almost 17 years ago, after serving 13 years and four months of his life sentence.

He had repeatedly applied for parole without success since 2011.