Janusz Walus was stabbed to death by a fellow prisoner on Tuesday, three days before the constitutional court deadline for his parole expired, the correctional services department said.
“The Department of Correctional Services can confirm an unfortunate stabbing incident involving inmate Janusz Walus,” the department said in a statement.
“A detailed statement of the incident will be provided at a later stage, but what can be stated at this point is that inmate Walus is stable and [the department’s] health officials are providing the necessary care.”
The statement says that he was stabbed by another inmate from the same prison.
Walus has been serving a life sentence for the premeditated murder of South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani in 1993, at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Center in Tshwane.
He was taken to the hospital section of the prison.
The correctional services department dismissed reports that he was stabbed to death by a former member of the armed struggle against apartheid.
He told the mail and guardian that the perpetrator had been “isolated” but that no further information had yet been collected or communicated.
The department confirmed that both Walus and the person who stabbed him were being held in individual cells and that the attack occurred while they were performing communal functions.
He stressed that Walus was in a stable condition, but said X-rays would be taken to establish the extent of the injury sustained.
Last Monday, the constitutional court held that Justice Minister Ronald Lamola’s refusal in 2020 to grant the Polish immigrant who conspired with Conservative Party member Clive Derby-Lewis to kill Hani was unconstitutional.
The SACP opposed Walus’s appeal of that decision to the high court.
The Home Department confirmed on Monday that it would grant Walus a waiver to the Immigration Act, allowing him to serve out his probation in South Africa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa called the court’s unanimous ruling “very disappointing.”
