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 Derby-Lewis: 'I've been left to rot'
    Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
    October 16 2009 at 09:38AM 		Get IOL on your
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Chris Hani's killer, Clive Derby-Lewis, remains behind bars, apparently a year after the parole board recommended he be released.

He says that political meddling by the ANC government is keeping him in jail.

Derby-Lewis's claims were rejected by Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula yesterday.

Ministry spokesperson Sonwabo Mbananga said Derby-Lewis had not served the minimum time required for him to be eligible for parole.

Derby-Lewis was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 assassination of the SACP leader. Hani was shot dead outside his home in Boksburg.

In a statement yesterday, Derby-Lewis said he had been kept in prison unlawfully for the past 12 months for none other than political reasons, although the parole board had recommended he be granted early release.
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"Justice is not available to those in South Africa who are deemed to be from the wrong political order," he said.

"Notwithstanding the price I have paid in prison time for being convicted of killing Chris Hani, I have been left to rot in jail. The parole board... recommended that I be released on October 15, 2008, said Derby-Lewis."

    • This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on October 16, 2009
Showing page 1 of 5 comment pages, 49 total comments
5 Weeks ago Martin Foster wrote :
What concerns me more is that "rule of law" is not being applied. Are we now into "whim-law"? What can we expect next?
5 Weeks ago Dr. Yzterbaard wrote :
Under the current Constitution, everyone is equal under the Law. EVERYONE. That goe for Clive, Tony, Glen, Brett, Julius, and everyne inside the borders, aliens included. That's what makes this country so great - unlike the unprincipled comment below. You may not like the man, or anyone else in jail, but that gives you no opinion in Law. Derby-Lewis is over 70 and has served 15 years, he is eligble for parole by Law, the Parole Board paroled him and the Minister of Correctional Services chose to ignore the Law by not effecting the administration of the decision. So the Great Country is not let down by paroled and rehabilitated convicts (Paloe Board's decision), its let down by petty lawbreakers in Cabinet. How fa are we from running a country on principles and blind justice? From the comments, its an unaatainable goal. So much for the 1994 events.
5 Weeks ago Anonymous walter say wrote :
I do feel pitty for the poor guy. just as judas talled the truth that he was been paid and hired to kill Jesus, He confess of killing. even you confess who hired you and paid you, that's all the south africans need to know.
5 Weeks ago Neville Paynter wrote :
............. as Just Another White Comrade reminded us, Mandela didn't kill anybody. But his wife was involved with a murder. And the victim was a black boy. But she's walked free and even sits on the NEC of the ANC, alongside Mr. Yengeni who is also a criminal who broke his parole.
5 Weeks ago Just Another White Comrade wrote :
@ Anonymous: "Just like Mandela was left in Prison for murdering white people in Apartheid days" you are wholly misguided and ill informed, can only relate it to your apartheid schooling. Mandela never killed a person, he may have planned an armed struggle but this was in retaliation. White South African's killed far more Black South Africans during apartheid - no one can dispute this verity.
5 Weeks ago Neville Paynter wrote :
Anonymous said .......Just like Mandela was left in Prison...... Oh? I thought Mandela was released from prison by the Nats. Didn't know he was still there. Wasn't he the guy that became the best president we've ever had?
5 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
Carry on rotting!
5 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
No Sympathy from this White Man, I understand his concerns, but he took a life and he must pay. He is a strategic prisoner to the ANC and by keeping him in prison they score, Just like Mandela was left in Prison for murdering white people in Apartheid days
5 Weeks ago Vanish wrote :
And rot you shall, you people have done enough harm to this country & now innocent white people are paying for it which is so sad. Oh & just for the record people haven't lost thier lives for shaiks crimes which does'nt make it any better because he is still a criminal as far as I am concerned.
5 Weeks ago Just Another White Comrade wrote :
I am intrigued by everyone's comments. As usual they have degenerated into mudslinging on racial and ideological lines while ignoring fact and respecting the verity that this man regardless of his actions is entitled to equal treatment before the law. And while this makes my own blood boil as a member of the ANC and contrary to my better judgement would rather see the man languish in a cell until kingdom come, I have to accept that Cde Hani's life was one that fought for the rights now enshrined in our Constitution. To ignore this would be an affront to his life and every other member of our great movement, those unsung heroes and heroines, who paid for our often neglected rights including the right to voice the opinions on this site, with their own lives. Lets leave race, ideology and other prejudices out of arguments and base them on fact.
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