The SCA, which is wrestling with an appeal against a Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) ruling in favour of bail for Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus, was told yesterday Walus had been stripped of his SA citizenship. ‘Representatives of the Department of Home Affairs confirmed it,’ Advocate Roelof du Plessis SC told Judges Christiaan van der Merwe, Jeremiah Shongwe, Mandisa Maya, Boissie Mbha and Ashton Schippers.

A Netwerk24 report notes Walus and the late Clive Derby-Lewis killed the then leader of the SA Communist Party at his Boksburg home on 10 April 1993. Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha is appealing against the release of Walus, who has spent 23 years behind bars.

Du Plessis asked the judges to consider the fact that Walus' South African citizenship had been revoked when making a ruling. Du Plessis insisted that it was necessary to free Walus, a Polish national, on parole so that he could leave the country. That’s after Mbha asked if there wouldn’t be ‘chaos in the country’ if Walus were to be granted parole. Advocate Marumo Moerane SC, for the state, argued that the High Court had ‘erred in that it hadn’t properly taken into account the need to distinguish between appeal and review’. He said parole wasn’t a right. Judgment was reserved.

Full Netwerk24 report