Cape Town - The justice ministry said on Tuesday it has been granted leave by the Supreme Court of Appeal to challenge the granting of parole to Janusz Walus, who assassinated South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani in 1993.
In March, the High Court in Pretoria ordered that Walus, a Polish immigrant, be released from prison within 14 days and denied Justice Minister Michael Masutha leave to appeal the ruling.
Read: Walus to remain in jail for now
The minister then petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal, and high court Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen refused Walus’s request to be released from custody pending the outcome of the minister’s approach to the Bloemfontein court.
Justice ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga confirmed on Tuesday that the petition had been successful.
The initial high court decision was met with outrage from the family of Hani, who was the leader of the SACP when he was gunned down outside his home a year before South Africa’s first democratic elections.
Walus has spent 23 years in prison for the murder.
The registrar of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Tuesday said it was unlikely the justice ministry’s appeal against the granting of parole to Walus would be heard until next year.
Paul Myburgh told the African News Agency that the court process would now involve the exchanging of documents and this "could take months".
African News Agency