EFF says 'Hani's death remains in vain', UDM says freeing killer 'doesn't make sense'

10 March 2016 - 13:56 By Kgothatso Madisa
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United Democratic Movement (UDM) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have responded to reports that Chris Hani's killer, Janusz Walus, will be released on parole.

Pretoria High Court ruled on Thursday that the South African Communist Party leader's killer must be released in 14 days.

This comes exactly ten months after Walus's co-conspirator Clive Derby-Lewis was  released on medical parole.

"The UDM  notes the release of the killer of Chris Hani but that doesn't mean we are satisfied with that.... I mean that just doesn't make sense, I'm sorry," said UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, according to Sowetan LIVE.

He said that there is nothing anyone can do as Walus and Derby-Lewis have used the loopholes in the justice system to run away from telling the truth.

He said that they will respect the court's decision.

"One must accept that in as much as we are angry about the killing of Chris Hani, the laws of this country treat everybody equally. So if the courts have taken that view, the UDM notes the release of this killer. "

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said that it must always be noted that Walus took the fall for a system [racial system] that has not fallen.

"The racism with which he killed Chris Hani remains today in the systematic protection of white privilege at the expense of black people," he said.

"De Klerk, on whose behalf people like De Kock worked, still breathes the same anti-black racist air that led Walus to kill Hani. Until the systematic privileging of white people at the expense of black people exists, Hani's death remains in vain."

Hani was shot on April 10 1993.

Derby-Lewis procured the weapon for Walus‚ a Polish immigrant‚ who pulled the trigger.

Both were sentenced to death‚ but their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.

-This article was first published at SowetanLIVE.

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