Walus: Hani murder was necessary

MORE than 30 years after he murdered anti-apartheid fighter, Chris Hani, Janusz Walus said if he had to do it over, he would take Hani's life again.

The 72-year-old Polish national showed no remorse or emotion in a sit-down interview with eNCA's Annika Larsen, aired on Sunday night.

Walus said: “It was necessary. It had to be done. And it’s dismissed from my mind.

He said Hani’s murder was purely political and not orchestrated by Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader, Eugene Terre’Blanche, or any apartheid forces.

Walus was arrested alongside Conservative Party founding member, Clive Derby-Lewis, the mastermind behind Hani’s assassination.

The men were arrested shortly after Hani’s death and sentenced to death. This sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment in 2000. Derby-Lewis died in November 2016, while Walus was deported back to Poland last year.

Walus said Hani had to be killed because he held a lot of power in his positions within the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress’ armed Umkhonto weSizwe wing.

He explained that when he walked up to Hani at his Boksburg home on 10 April 1993, Hani was surprised to see him.

Hani was also alone at the time, without his bodyguards.

Walus said he shot Hani four times and did not use a silencer as this would have slowed him down.

He added that if the plan to kill Hani fell apart, the next person to be killed would have been Joe Slovo.

Investigations uncovered a hit list of those who were to be killed. The names on the list were; Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Mac Maharaj, Karen Brynard, Pik Botha, Richard Goldstone, Ken Owen and Tim du Plessis.

Walus said he believed he should have gotten amnesty for Hani’s murder because his reason for killing Hani was political and not personal.