Hani’s hitman: ‘Nationalists’ give Janusz Waluś a hero’s welcome in Poland

Chris Hani’s hitman, Janusz Waluś, who served 28 years in prison before being released on parole in 2022, arrived at Poland’s Warsaw’s Chopin Airport on Saturday morning.

The 71-year-old Polish nationalist’s controversial deportation to his home country was justified by the Department of Home Affairs on the basis that – after serving his parole – Waluś was illegally in South Africa.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Waluś, who assassinated the SACP leader in 1993, was given a hero’s welcome by a group of neo-Nazis from an extremist group known as Bad Company.

Grzegorz Braun, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) political party, was also spotted accompanying him in the arrivals hall.

ALSO READ: Janusz Waluś heading back to Poland as Chris Hani’s wife makes inquiry request

‘The cult of Janusz Waluś’

During his time in prison, Waluś was hailed as a political hero by some Polish right-wing extremists for killing a prominent communist.

According to NFP. he gained cult status among many radical nationalists in Poland, who used to chant his name and brandished banners of his image during football matches and marches.

“The cult of Janusz Waluś started in the 1990s, but it has really spread in the last couple of years because of his recent parole applications, and of course it coincides with the rise of the far right in Poland,” a professor at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw and director of the Never Again association, an antiracism campaign group, Rafał Pankowski, was quoted as saying.

“It represents not only the growing acceptance of racism, but also a growing acceptance of politically motivated violence.”

Waluś parole: Numerous appeals funded by Polish supporters

The Guardian previously reported that his daughter Ewa – whom Waluś abandoned in Poland with his ex-wife when she was only three years old – admitted that she received funds to support her father’s parole appeals.

She confirmed that her father would not have been able to pursue his repeated appeals for parole if it was not for the financial assistance provided by his Polish supporters.

Ewa however insisted that she does not accept donations from fascist or neo-Nazi organisations.

A daughter’s fear for her father

In a 2024 interview with eNCA’s Annika Larson when she was in South Africa in support of negotiations over her father’s potential deportation, Ewa confessed that she dreaded the possibility of his “adoption by right-wing extremists” in Poland.

According to her, Polish politics have however changed over the years, with only 7% holding right-wing sentiments.

Janusz Waluś: ‘The Ice Man’ who killed Hani

Waluś, who is also known as “The Ice Man” in Poland because of his icy blue eyes, emigrated to join his father and brother in South Africa in 1981, just two months before General Jaruzelski’s imposition of martial law during the country’s communist era.

In South Africa, the lanky Pole joined right-wing extremists and plotted with Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis to assassinate Hani in the driveway of his home in Boksburg on 10 April 1993. 

The assassination of Hani, considered by many as a potential successor to Nelson Mandela as leader of the ANC, brought South Africa to the brink of a race war.

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