Star Metro - Killer of S.African anti-apartheid hero Hani freed on parole

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola "has placed offender... Walus on parole under strict conditions with effect from Wednesday," the government said in a statement.

A spokesman confirmed that this meant Walus had been released, in line with a decision by the Constitutional Court.

"He will serve two years under community corrections in line with the parole regime upon which he is released," the statement said.

Last month's court decision sparked fierce protests from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its ally in the struggle against apartheid, the South African Communist Party, which Hani had led.

Walus was being held at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria prior to the court's announcement.

But a week after the ruling, he was stabbed by another inmate while queueing for food. His release, which should have taken effect by December 1, was delayed while he received treatment.

Walus shot dead Hani, a hugely popular figure and fierce opponent of white rule, in his driveway just as negotiations to end apartheid were entering their final phase.

The murder almost plunged South Africa into a race war.

"There is no question that offender Walus is a polarising figure in our budding constitutional democracy, and that his release has understandably re-opened wounds," the ministry said.

His "actions sought to derail the democratic project at its most critical, formative stage," it declared.

Walus immigrated to South Africa from then-communist Poland in 1981 at the height of the white-minority apartheid rule.

He and his accomplice Clive Derby-Lewis, who supplied the gun, were arrested soon after the attack.

The pair were sentenced to death but the punishment was later communited to life imprisonment after the death penalty was abolished by South Africa Africa's post-apartheid government.

Derby-Lewis was released in 2015 on medical parole after 22 years in jail. He died of lung cancer in 2016, aged 80.

The home affairs ministry has said Walus will serve his parole in South Africa and not be allowed to return to Poland given the "heinous crime committed."

G.Boudreau--SMC