Chris Hani

From Metapedia

Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani (June 28, 1942 – April 10, 1993) was the leader of the South African Communist Party and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government. He was assassinated on April 10, 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a racially-mixed suburb of Boksburg. He was accosted by a Polish anti-communist immigrant named Janusz Walus, who shot him in the head as he stepped out of his car. Walus fled the scene, but was arrested soon afterwards. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party M.P., who had loaned Walus his pistol, was also arrested for complicity in Hani's murder.

Hani's assassination was part of a plot by the far right in South Africa to derail the negotiations to end apartheid. An alleged hit list of senior ANC and SACP figures found in the Derby-Lewis home included Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo at numbers one and two. Hani was number three on the list.

Historically, the assassination is seen as a turning point. Serious tensions followed the assassination, with fears that the country would erupt in violence. Nelson Mandela addressed the nation appealing for calm, in a speech regarded as 'presidential' even though he was then not president of the country: "Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world. ... Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us:. While riots did follow the assassination, the two sides of the negotiation process were galvanized into action, and they soon agreed that democratic elections should take place on 27 April 1994, just over a year after Hani's assassination.