Business Day
*SACP to oppose Hani killer’s parole bid* *Franny Rabkin, Business Day, Johannesburg, 23 June 2010*THE South African Communist Party (SACP) said yesterday it would oppose a parole application by Clive Derby-Lewis, who murdered liberation movement leader Chris Hani.
Derby-Lewis’s application will be heard by the parole board in Pretoria today.
The 1993 murder of the popular liberation hero by right-wing extremists Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus almost derailed SA’s negotiations for democracy.
His murder, to this day, angers many South Africans.The SACP’s Malesela Maleka said Mr Hani’s widow, Limpho, would also oppose the application. She had previously said Derby-Lewis should not be paroled as he had shown no remorse or contrition for his actions.
Derby-Lewis was originally sentenced to death for the murder. But when the death penalty was declared unconstitutional, his sentence was commuted to a life sentence.
Last year, an application for parole was rejected by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
Judge Willem van der Merwe said that Derby-Lewis was, in law, eligible to be considered for parole — because he was over the age of 65 and had already served 15 years of his sentence.
But the judge said the decision to grant parole was ultimately in the hands of the correctional services minister and not the court.
Judge van der Merwe also ruled that Ms Hani had a right to make representations to the parole board before it could recommend parole.
Mr Maleka said yesterday that Derby-Lewis should not be allowed “to abuse our constitution and legal framework in the name of justice”. Derby-Lewis and Walus “deserve nothing but to rot in jail”.
Derby-Lewis’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.But in his judgment, Judge van der Merwe said if Derby-Lewis feared that his application would be arbitrarily refused, he could apply to a court to review that decision once it was made.
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