Janusz Waluś (assassin)

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Janusz Jakub Waluś (born January 14, 1953 in Zakopane , Poland) is a Polish right-wing extremist activist in South Africa who murdered Chris Hani , the chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe , the formerly armed arm of the African National Congress , in a 1993 assassination attempt . He is serving a life sentence.

Life

Waluś followed his father, who had already emigrated in the 1970s, and his brother to South Africa in 1981. The glass company was located in the homeland of QwaQwa , where at the time of apartheid it was allowed and desired by the government in Pretoria that white immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, set up companies here. At times the annual turnover of the company was 1.5 million Rand , so the owner family lived in a prosperous atmosphere. Waluś's father (Tadeusz Waluś) lived in a luxurious apartment in the Waterkloof district of Pretoria and owned another production company in Harrismith . Entrepreneurial activities fell apart from 1989, for which the family blamed the changing government policy. The disintegrating Homeland system and the increasingly unfavorable credit conditions for foreigners led to the collapse of the family business. The father went back to Poland. Son Janusz Waluś stayed in South Africa and worked for a transport company. At the time he had an apartment in Pretoria and had a personal relationship with a woman who lived here. His wife Wanda lived in Radom with their daughter Ewa. Janusz Waluś maintained contacts with right-wing circles and trained in karate . In addition, he was a member of the National Party and the radical African resistance movement and thus got deeper and deeper into right-wing extremist circles that supported South Africa's apartheid policy. He was 38 years old at the time of his murder against Chris Hani.

The assassination attempt on Chris Hani comes at a time when political negotiations to end apartheid were already taking place in South Africa. On Easter Sunday, April 10, 1993, Waluś drove to Hani's house in Boksburg near Johannesburg at around half past ten in the morning . Hani had just returned home. As he got out of his car, Waluś called him by name, whereupon Hani turned around and was murdered by Waluś with one shot in the body and three shots in the head. Hani died instantly and Waluś fled. A neighbor took down the license plate number, which led to Waluś's arrest. At first he denied any involvement in the attack, but then described the course of events to a police officer whom he believed to be a right-wing radical. Thorough investigations led to the former MP Clive Derby-Lewis , who instigated Waluś to commit the attack and who had obtained the weapon. Police also found a death list listing Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo ahead of Hani. The aim of the two was to disrupt the negotiation process to end apartheid.

Janusz Waluś and Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death for their crime. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment following the abolition of the death penalty.

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began its work, Waluś applied for an amnesty that would suspend his sentence. After a thorough investigation, the commission found that he and Derby-Lewis had not acted under higher orders and rejected an amnesty. Both remained in custody. In early 2014, both were injured by a fellow inmate with a sharp spoon. In March 2016, a judge ordered his release on parole, but the decision was reversed after violent popular protests. in 2017 he was stripped of his South African citizenship. Another application for release from prison was denied in 2019, and a third application is pending.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Truth Commission - Special Report - TRC Final Report - Volume 6, Section 1, Chapter. Retrieved October 30, 2019 .
  2. ↑ George Fetherling: The Book of Assassins . Random House of Canada, 2011, p. 613 ISBN 978-0-307-36909-3 ( excerpt from Google Books )
  3. ↑ Hani lived and died for his principles - DA. In: news24.com , April 10, 2013 (English).
  4. ^ A b Janet Smith, Beauregard Tromp: Hani: A Life Too Short . Jonathan Ball Publishers , Johannesburg, Cape Town 2009, pp. 238-239. ISBN 978-1-86842-349-1
  5. ↑ Stephen E. Atkins: Encyclopedia of Modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, p. 12 ff. ISBN 0-313-32485-9 ( excerpt from Google Books )
  6. ↑ Murder with a Political Motive. In: Economic and Political Weekly. 1993.
  7. ↑ Suzanne Daley: Slayer Tells Inquiry of Mandela Ally's Killing . In: The New York Times . August 22, 1987, p. 13.
  8. ↑ a b c A. Kemp: The death of Chris Hani: An African Misadventure
  9. ↑ Hani killer's stabbing: SACP, Bizos blamed. iol.co.za of February 28, 2014 (English), accessed October 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ Janusz Walus loses bid for freedom. news24.com from April 26, 2016 (English), accessed on May 28, 2016.
  11. ↑ Canny Mashanga: Janusz Walus' parole bid: Lamola given 60 days to reconsider parole for Chris Hani's killer. news24.com from December 12, 2019, accessed on January 11, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Waluś, Janusz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African assassin
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Zakopane , Poland