The Department of Correctional Services would not be drawn on the release of Janusz Walus expected on Thursday. This is as Alliance partners pile on the pressure to have Walus kept behind bars.
The pressure mounted after papers for a rescission application were filed in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.
Walus is currently in a prison hospital after being stabbed on Tuesday.
Details surrounding the release of Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus remain unclear.
“What guides us here is that there is an appropriate authority that has to make that decision. And with this particular one, it’s the Minister. You’ll appreciate that Mr Walus is a lifer. The Minister then will do what he needs to legally so that at the right time the minister will make his intentions known,” says DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.
Nxumalo spoke to the media following a protest by the tripartite alliance at the prison where Walus is serving a life sentence. The said protest made a political statement against the release of Walus, stating that he had not been transparent on the brutal assassination of Hani, therefore, further action would follow.
“Judges are not gods, their word is not final. The action that we have taken as the communist party on behalf of the alliance as well as on behalf of the Hani family, we are acting together in unison. In this regard was to look at the legal avenues available to us. We have yesterday served legal paper to the Constitutional Court to call for a rescission order on their decision to release Janusz Walus,” says South African Communist Party general secretary Solly Mapaila.
In addition to the rescission application, the Minister of Home Affairs granted Walus an exemption in order for him to serve his parole in South Africa. However, the country is yet to hear from the Ministry of justice. Numerous attempts to reach Walus’ lawyers were unsuccessful.
