Johannesburg - The wife of convicted killer Clive Derby-Lewis plans to approach the Public Protector to force police and government departments to do their job.
“No, I haven't laid a complaint yet, but I will approach her because it's the Public Protector's job to make sure a government department does its job,” Gaye Derby-Lewis said on Monday.
She wants her husband to be released on medical parole.
“Failing that, we will take legal action against the police. No one is untouchable in South Africa, and they must learn this.”
In an e-mail, she alleged SA Communist Party members were making it difficult for her husband to get parole.
“After years of listening to the SACP leaders... state that Clive Derby-Lewis did not make full disclosure during his 1993 trial... we decided to request the SAPS to question Blade Nzimande 1/8and others 3/8... regarding what knowledge they obviously have about a wider conspiracy,” she said.
Nzimande is SACP general secretary.
“If they state in public that there is indeed a wider conspiracy, then it stands to reason that they should hand the information to back their statements to the SAPS.”
In February, IOL quoted SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo saying it would continue to oppose parole for her husband.
“He (Clive Derby-Lewis) applied for amnesty with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but it was not granted because he did not tell the complete truth,” Mashilo told the website.
“He is a liar and unrehabilitated. On this basis we will continue to oppose his parole.”
Mashilo could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Gaye Derby-Lewis said she sought advice on the matter from a senior policeman.
“I laid a complaint with police to find out why these communists keep fighting his parole.
“To date they have done nothing. They don’t even report back to me despite numerous requests by phone, by sms and by e-mail.”
She believed the police were scared of the SACP.
“Clearly, even the SAPS is scared to approach these political untouchables who are dictating the law with regard to Derby-Lewis, and backing their agenda with violent protests in the streets.
“We cannot change the DNA of the SACP street terrorists, but we surely can appeal to those South Africans who purport to uphold the law for everyone on an equal basis.
“Clearly, the SACP is afraid of a 78-year-old man.”
Derby-Lewis was convicted of conspiracy to kill SACP general secretary Chris Hani by providing the gun that Polish immigrant Janusz Walus used to kill Hani in the driveway of his Boksburg, East Rand, home on April 10, 1993.
The former Conservative Party MP, who was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, has already served more than 20 years of his sentence. Derby-Lewis was initially sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in 1995.
He testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that his fight against communism motivated the murder. The commission denied him amnesty in 1999, a decision upheld by the Cape High Court a year later. He first applied for parole in June 2010.
Last week, correctional services refuted claims that medical parole was being considered for him.
Spokesman Manelisi Wolela said the department received an incomplete application for Derby-Lewis's medical parole and it was waiting for a completed form.
However, both Derby-Lewis and Walus were recommended for parole, which was being considered, he said.
Sapa