Janusz Waluś, a Polish immigrant with links to the Afrikaner far right, who was convicted for the 1993 murder of prominent Black politician Chris Hani near Johannesburg, has been released from prison and deported to Poland.
During his years of incarceration, Waluś became a figure of admiration for some extreme right and White nationalists in Poland.
As reported by Gazeta Wyborcza, arriving at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport on Saturday, Waluś was spotted in the company of Polish far-right MP Grzegorz Braun whose recent use of a fire extinguisher to put out Jewish Hanukkah candles in parliament sparked a global outcry.
Waluś had spent nearly 30 years of his life sentence in a South African prison but when he was granted parole in November 2022, the decision evoked painful memories of the apartheid era and sparked widespread street protests.
The now 71-year-old, who was born in the Polish mountain resort of Zakopane, migrated to South Africa in 1981 and was given citizenship, which was eventually revoked in 2017 due to his conviction for Hani’s murder.
This has left Waluś as solely a Polish national. His two-year parole period ended Friday, prompting the decision to deport him.
Calling it a "difficult day for all of us", the South African authorities said “local taxpayers, including Chris Hani's widow, will not be paying for the deportation of this individual."
They added that Poland would bear the cost.
Hani, a father aged 50 at the time of his death, was the general secretary of the South African Communist party, affiliated to the African National Congress (ANC), and is considered a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle.
His death is commemorated annually in South Africa.
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Source: Gazeta Wyborcza, IAR