Chris Hani
Chris Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993), born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the Secretary of the South African Communist Party and leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed terrorist wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
Life
A violent opponent of European government in South Africa, he was assassinated outside his home in Dawn Park, a racially-mixed suburb of Boksburg, by an ethnic 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 for self-protection over breakfast, was subsequently arrested and also charged with complicity in what was a clear frame-up by the authorities, who held what became a show trial under Emergency Terrorist Legislation originally intended only for terrorists.
During this event the traitorous State Prosecutor said Hani's assassination was part of a plot by the "far-right" to derail the government-ANC negotiations to end separate development (apartheid). An alleged hit list of senior ANC and SACP figures was conveniently found in the Derby-Lewis home and produced in court which included communists Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo at numbers one and two. Hani was number three on the list.[1]
Tensions followed the assassination, with some fears that the country would erupt in violence. Nelson Mandela, a convicted terrorist and card-carrying member of the South African Communist Party until his death, appealed for calm, in a provocative and "racist" speech:
- "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. 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 negro riots did follow the assassination, the two sides of the negotiation process were already far advanced and they ultimately agreed that democratic elections for all would take place on 27 April 1994, over a year later.
