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Pretoria — The High Court in Pretoria yesterday dismissed an application by the government for leave to appeal a ruling that Janusz Walus be released on parole.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha applied for leave to appeal the ruling, just two days after the 23rd anniversary of Chris Hani’s assassination.
Walus, a Polish immigrant, shot dead Hani in the driveway of his Boksburg home on April 10, 1993.
Meanwhile, the Hani family will take its fight against Walus’s release on parole to the Supreme Court of Appeal, after the High Court in Pretoria dismissed an application for leave to appeal the decision to release him.
“She [the judge] isn’t God, we’ve other courts to go to,” Chris Hani’s widow Limpho Hani said yesterday.
She was speaking shortly after Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen dismissed government’s bid to appeal her ruling that Walus could be released on parole. “As black people in this country . . . we’ll continue to fight until justice is done,” she said.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha applied for leave to appeal the ruling, just two days after the 23rd anniversary of the SACP leader’s assassination.
Hani expressed her bitter disappointment with Van Nieuwenhuizen’s judgment and accused her of not being fair.
She urged her to take a leaf out of Judge Thokozile Masipa’s book in her handling of Oscar Pistorius’s case. Masipa granted the State leave to appeal her ruling that the former Paralympian was guilty of culpable homicide.
“She didn’t deny NPA leave to appeal, she said go for it,” Hani said.
“That’s what I call somebody who gave a judgment with no agendas. She was confident that her judgment, as far as she was concerned, was fair.
“But this one, it’s so interesting, she denied the minister leave to appeal. It means she isn’t confident about her decision, that’s what I’m saying. I wish she could be mentored by Judge Masipa.” — Sapa
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo