The South African government announced the deportation of Janusz Walus, the 71-year-old Polish immigrant and Afrikaner far-right associate convicted of the 1993 assassination of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani, was set to be deported to Poland following his 2022 parole release.
Interior Minister Schreiber acknowledged the difficulty of the decision, stressing that Poland, not South African taxpayers, would cover deportation costs. The swift arrest of Walus immediately after the murder – with the murder weapon and blood found in his car – provided compelling evidence, and the event itself fueled racial tensions.
Walus's initial death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2000. His 2021 parole application was initially denied but later granted by the Supreme Court. His South African citizenship was revoked in 2017, leaving him with only Polish nationality. His two-year parole period ended Friday, triggering his deportation.
The assassination of Chris Hani, the 50-year-old SACP general secretary, remains a powerfully symbolic event, annually commemorated in South Africa as a stark reminder of the fight against apartheid.