A petition calling for an inquest into the death of Struggle icon and anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani is growing.
This comes as the country prepares to commemorate the brutal killing of Hani on April 10, 1993.
The petition, which is accessible through Change.Org, was initiated by SACP Central Committee Member responsible for Campaigns, Tinyiko Ntini.
In less than two hours after it was posted, the petition had gardened more than 188 signatures by 7pm on Monday to reach its target of 200 signatures for a recommendation.
In a detailed explanation, Ntini said this year marked three decades since Hani was assassinated outside his Dawn Park home in Boksburg, east of Joburg.
“Following the Concourt judgment handed down on November 21, 2022, the SACP launched 135 days programme of activism towards the 30th anniversary of his assassination. The main demand is for the State to establish an inquest into his death,” Ntini wrote.
He added: “The Concourt has failed to protect communists by releasing an ideologically-driven assassin, who remains resolutely anti-communist and not ready to speak the absolute truth.”
Polish-born Janusz Waluś was convicted for Hani’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Waluś was denied parole four times until the Constitutional Court in November last year ordered that he be released.
Much to the dismay of Hani’s widow Limpho Hani and the SACP who have maintained that Waluś was not solely responsible for the assassination, he was released on parole in December 2022 with Minister Aaron Motsoaledi stating that he would serve his two-year parole in South Africa.
One of the parole conditions placed by the authorities means that he can’t use any document to travel to Poland, his native country.
Ntini said the late Derby-Lewis, who had confessed to planning Hani’s murder alongside Waluś was denied amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Current Affairs