As authorities announced yesterday that Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Waluś will serve his parole in SA, insiders at the Kgoši Mampuru II Correctional Centre say he has started bidding farewell to staff and fellow inmates.
According to two insiders with knowledge of the prison where the Polish immigrant has been serving time for the murder of Hani back in 1993, Waluś has told staff and inmates that he expected to be released sometime after Thursday.
A week ago, the Constitutional Court set aside the decision of justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola to refuse him parole and ordered Waluś’s release within 10 days, which falls on Friday. The order has been met with outrage from Hani’s family, comrades and supporters.
Speaking to Sowetan at the weekend, one insider at the facility said Waluś was housed in a single cell.
“Janusz [Waluś] told us he’s leaving any time from Thursday onwards to sometime next week. He is saying goodbye and says he wants to go home. He said a number of other prisoners have approached him asking for advice so he’s busy consulting other prisoners too and he’s telling them he was assisted by the court’s judgment,” said the insider.
“Kgoši Mampuru used to be a whites-only prison so there are more single cells here than at most prisons in SA. He’s in a unit that accommodates those going to school, studying through Unisa and those like him. He’s accommodated in that unit and there is no special treatment.
“During his time here, he taught other offenders karate because he knows karate. Usually with foreign offenders they get what we call a pass, which is a passport they can utilise only once to go home.”
The insider said most of Walus's visitors were diplomats.
“Most of the time it will be someone from diplomacy and those he went to church with. When Derby-Lewis was still here, Derby-Lewis’s girlfriend would visit,” the insider said.
Yesterday, home affairs minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said Waluś had been granted an exemption to serve out his parole period in SA.
At the time of publishing it was not yet clear how long this period would be, considering that Waluś was serving a life term.
Motsoaledi said the exemption was granted in 2020 during Waluś's previous attempts at being granted parole.
The minister said the exemption contains a condition that Waluś may not use any travel document and/or passport issued by the embassy of Poland to leave SA.
"The minister has granted Waluś an exemption in terms of section 31(2)(b) of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002, the rights of permanent residence for the parole period and conditions to be imposed by the minister of justice and correctional services."
Waluś has spent the past 28 years in prison and was denied parole on four previous occasions. He and Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death for the murder but after the abolition of the death penalty their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
The insider continued that since the ConCourt judgment Waluś was “more than happy”.
“Since the judgment came out he’s been more than happy. He’s not someone who shows emotion... He’s like a child that goes to counselling. It takes time for him.
“It’s hard to get a smile from him but you’ll get it from him if he’s known you long enough.”
A second insider who also asked not to be named told Sowetan that Waluś was moved from the C-Max section years ago to the central section of the prison.
“C-Max is known as ultra-maximum and central is still a maximum prison but ranges from that to medium. The categories are different and after spending a certain period in C-Max you’re moved to the central prison, and you eventually move to a lower scale depending on your behaviour. Even at C-Max he was in a single cell.”
According to the BBC, Waluś has become a symbol for far-right extremists in Poland, with some carrying banners depicting his face at football matches.
Sowetan’s sister publication, The Sunday Times, reported that there were still questions about his SA citizenship, which his lawyer Roelof du Plessis said was revoked in 2017.
Waluś was officially naturalised in 1987 after arriving in SA in 1981.
Justice and correctional services minister's spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said the department was not in the position to provide details related to Waluś's release yet.
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