Janusz Waluś returned to the media spotlight when Constitutional Court Chief Justice Raymond Zondo stated that “the principle of equality before the law was not just written for those who fought apartheid – but [also for] those who actively supported it” and ordered Justice Minister Ronald Lamola to release the 69-year-old on parole. 

This ruling was in response to a flip-flop parole case in 2017 that ignited a campaign in his home country, Poland – which he left in 1981 while it lay behind the iron curtain as a satellite state for the USSR. 

/iron curtain/

The term refers to area of Europe that was under Soviet influence was popularised by former British prime minister Winston Churchill in a speech on 5 March 1946: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

A year before the High Court judgement overturning, Waluś’s advocate, Roelof du Plessis, stated that his client’s South African citizenship had been revoked by the Department of Home Affairs “just a few weeks” earlier and that a warrant for his deportation had been issued. 

Victory for the Right Wing

Waluś, who is regarded by far-right activists as a resistance hero, is admired for stopping communism in South Africa, and considered “the great hope of the white race”, was expected to return home and receive a hero’s welcome before the late SACP General Secretary’s widow, Limpho Hani, brandished the 2016 High Court decision as racist.

This prompted a group of Polish MPs to launch a campaign to secure Waluś’ release.

“Waluś’ harassment is the result of personal revenge by part of South Africa’s governing elite,” said a senator of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jan Żaryn.

Since then, Waluś has become a political icon in Poland, where fans draped banners calling for his vindication in football stadiums around the country.

And beyond that, scarves, t-shirts, stickers, and other merchandise were selling like hotcakes on Poland’s OLX website, which falls under the umbrella of Naspers’ plethora of subsidiaries, before the items were banned for promoting fascism and racial hatred.

Waluś popularity at home now seems as if it will be the catalyst behind his imminent release. 

Releasing the man who almost started a civil war, who killed the man who was touted to be Nelson Mandela’s successor, who also had Mandela’s (and Joe Slovo’s) name and home address on his hit list, would be a great advertisement for the strength of our Consitution.

But giving him his own dark, twisted “long walk to freedom” will also allow him to become a manifestation of the very same white supremacy that Chris Hani spent his entire life fighting. 

And with this in mind that we have to question whether Zondo’s commitment to upholding the rule of law for those who “actively supported” Apartheid is reasonable.

We are all equal before the law, but if Waluś’ assassination of Hani brought about the intended consequences of a race war, those laws wouldn’t exist in the first place.

He has shown no remorse for his actions, which has led to many South Africans calling our Constitutional Court’s ability to deliver justice into question.

Update: Waluś suffered a stab wound and has been taken up in hospital. Justice minister Ronald Lamola has confirmed that the Polish national will be released on parole once he has recovered from his injuries, as per the Constitutional Court decision.

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