Chinese President Xi Jinping and Rwandan President Paul Kagame ahead of their meeting at the Government Palace in Kigali, Rwanda on July 23 2018. (Cyril Ndegeya/Anadolu Agency)
The African National Congress is demanding that Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen from the high court in Pretoria review her judgement to release jailed assassin Janusz Walus, who killed South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani in April 1993.
Minister of Sports and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, said Niewenhuizen’s comments regarding the case were “insensitive”.
Hani’s widow Mhpo, has complained that in making he ruling the judge told her to “move on”.
“How dare that white woman tell me to get over it? Is she god? Was her husband murdered,” said Mpho Hani soon after last week’s order to release the 63-year-old killer on parole within two weeks.
Walus was initially sentenced to death, but this was converted to life in prison after the abolition of capital punishment.
Hani’s widow and other ANC and SACP members joined the march that was led by Mbalula on Monday.
“What appalls us is the total disregard of this principle of separation of powers by Judge Niewenhuizen. The judge’s views on the nature of the crime which is a political matter exposes the judge to the bias,” said Mbalula.
Mpho Hani said the ruling was “racist”.
Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha had previously turned down Walus’s request for parole citing the gravity of his crime, which nearly plunged South Africa into a bloodbath.
ANC and SACP members gathered outside the Constitutional Court to hand over a memorandum of demands relating to the release of Walus on Thursday. The Hani family has urged Masutha to appeal the ruling ordering the release of Walus. – African News Agency (ANA)