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Justice Minister Michael Masutha has missed a High Court deadline to give reasons why Chris Hani's killer, Janusz Walus, should remain behind bars, according to the Citizen.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria gave Masutha 120 days to reconsider releasing Walus on parole. Walus assassinated SACP leader Hani in 1993.
Walus' attorney, Julian Knight, said that in September last year, Judge Selby Baqwa gave the minister until early January to reconsider Walus' parole, taking into account all relevant information, including comments by Walus, Hani's widow, Limpho Hani, and the SACP on a negative parole board recommendation.
Knight said the court had now given the minister an extension until Friday this week to make a decision.
The lawyer further told the newspaper that Walus might consider taking the matter to the Constitutional Court if the issue of his parole is not resolved.
Not enough remorse
News24 previously reported that Masutha said releasing the convicted murderer on parole would be pointless, as he "still harbours resentment". Walus wrote to the parole board chairperson in 2013, stating that he had successfully completed anger management and life skills programmes.
Masutha said Walus had not shown enough remorse for killing the SACP leader in the driveway of his Boksburg home on April 10, 1993.
Masutha turned down Walus' 2013 application to be released in April 2015.
Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis, who supplied the weapon Walus used to kill Hani, was sentenced to death for the murder in October 1993, along with the Polish immigrant.
Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in November 2000.
Derby-Lewis was later released on medical parole suffering from lung cancer. He died in November 2016 at his home in Pretoria.
