Chris Hani

Chris Hani (28 June 1942Template:Snd10 April 1993;<ref name="sacp_Chri">Template:Cite web</ref> born Martin Thembisile Hani Template:Postnominals) was a South African military commander, politician and revolutionary who served as the leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the former armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government, and was assassinated by Janusz Waluś, a Polish immigrant and sympathiser of the Conservative opposition on 10 April 1993, during the unrest preceding the transition to democracy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Martin Thembisile Hani was born on 28 June 1942<ref name="sacp_Chri"/> in the Xhosa village in Cofimvaba, Transkei. His father Gilbert Hani was a mine union worker and political activist who left the country to go into exile in 1962 and returned to South Africa in 1991. His mother Mary Hani was a simple person who had never attended school. He was the fifth of six children. He attended Lovedale school in 1957, to finish his last two years. He twice finished two school grades in a single year. When Hani was 12 years old, after hearing his father's explanations about apartheid and the African National Congress (ANC), he wished to join the ANC but was still too young to be accepted.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> In Lovedale school, Hani joined the ANC Youth League when he was 15 years old, even though political activities were not allowed at black schools under apartheid. He influenced other students to join the ANC.<ref name=":0"/> In an interview in 1993 with Luli Callinicos, Hani revealed that he was first involved with the Unity movement. He was influenced to align with the ANC due to the activism of the party concerning mass struggles. He mentioned writers such as Govan Mbeki who played a critical role in his political conversion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1959, at the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, Hani studied English, Latin<ref name=":0"/> and modern and classical literature.<ref name="about.com">Template:Cite web</ref> He did not participate in any sport, saying: "I would rather fight apartheid than play sport."<ref name=":0"/> Hani, in an interview on the Wankie campaign, mentioned that he was a Rhodes University graduate.<ref name="HaniVid">Template:Cite web</ref>

Political and military career

At the age of 15, he joined the ANC Youth League. As a student, he was active in protests against the Bantu Education Act. He worked as a clerk for a law firm. In 1961, Hani joined a communist party led by Comrade Mbeki where he first started learning and reading about Marxism. Following his graduation, Hani joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC. He credited his commitment to the MK as a result of his exposure to the extreme side of apartheid during his upbringing. Hani said, "I didn't get involved with the workers' struggle out of theory alone. It was a combination of theory and my own class background."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following his arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act, he went into exile in Lesotho in 1963.<ref name=about.com/> Because of Hani's involvement with Umkhonto we Sizwe, he was forced into hiding by the South African government and changed his first name to Chris.<ref name="about.com"/>

He received military training in the Soviet Union and served in campaigns in the Zimbabwean War of Liberation, also called the Rhodesian Bush War. They were joint operations between Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army in the late 1960s. The Luthuli Detachment operation consolidated Hani's reputation as a soldier in the black army that took the field against apartheid and its allies. His role as a fighter from the earliest days of MK's exile (following the arrest of Nelson Mandela and the other internal MK leaders at Rivonia) was an important part in the fierce loyalty that Hani later enjoyed in some quarters as MK's Deputy Commander (Joe Modise was overall commander). In 1969, Hani co-signed, with six others, the "Hani Memorandum", which was strongly critical of the leadership of Joe Modise, Moses Kotane and other comrades in the leadership.<ref>The ‘Hani Memorandum’ – introduced and annotated by Hugh Macmillan Template:Webarchive, Transformation, 2009.</ref> This memorandum was also a cry to radicalize the anti-apartheid movement in the ANC. Hani saw the overreliance on diplomatic negotiations as inefficient and was critical of the separation between the leaders of the ANC and the fighters of the MK. Hani stressed the fact in the memorandum by saying, "the ANC is the vanguard of the revolutionary struggle in South Africa and it is strange that its leaders have not been obliged to take the M.K. oath". Hani and the signatories of the memorandum aimed to unite both parties while also holding leaders of the ANC accountable for complacency.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In Lesotho, Hani organised guerrilla operations of the MK in South Africa. By 1982, he had become prominent enough to have become the target of assassination attempts, and he eventually moved to the ANC's headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. As head of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he was responsible for the suppression of a mutiny by dissident anti-Communist ANC members in detention camps, but denied any role in abuses including torture and murder.<ref name=about.com/> Many MK female operatives, such as Dipuo Mvelase, adored Chris Hani for having protected women's rights and caring about their wellbeing at military camps.<ref name=angola>Template:Cite web</ref>

Having spent time as a clandestine organiser in South Africa in the mid-1970s, he permanently returned to South Africa following the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, and took over from Joe Slovo as head of the South African Communist Party (SACP) on 8 December 1991.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He supported the suspension of the ANC's armed struggle in favour of negotiations,<ref name=autobiography>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as including a multi-party political system. Hani also pushed for radical economic reform in South Africa. He put great effort in advocating for a socialist economy. Social redistribution as well as protecting labor rights were central in Hani's push to improve the South African economy post apartheid. In an interview in 1993, Hani explained how creating a socio economic restructure would be a massive job for South Africans.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Assassination

Template:Main Chris Hani was assassinated on 10 April 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a racially mixed suburb of Boksburg. He was accosted by a Polish far-right anti-communist immigrant named Janusz Waluś, who shot him as he stepped out of his car.<ref name="Atkins2004">Template:Cite book</ref> Waluś fled the scene but was soon arrested after Margareta Harmse, a white Afrikaner housewife, saw Waluś straight after the crime as she was driving past, and called the police. A neighbour of Hani also witnessed the crime and later identified both Waluś, and the vehicle he was driving at the time. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party MP and Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs at the time, who had lent Waluś his pistol, was also arrested for complicity in Hani's murder.<ref name=hearing-resumes>Template:Cite news</ref> The Conservative Party of South Africa had broken away from the ruling National Party out of opposition to the reforms of P. W. Botha. After the elections of 1989, it was the second-strongest party in the House of Assembly, after the National Party, and opposed F. W. de Klerk's dismantling of apartheid.

Historically, the assassination is seen as a turning point. Serious tensions followed the assassination, with fears that the country would erupt in violence. Nelson Mandela addressed the nation appealing for calm, in a speech regarded as presidential even though he was not yet president of the country:<ref name=sparks>Template:Cite book</ref>

While riots followed the assassination,<ref name=hearing-resumes/> both sides of the negotiation process were galvanised into action, and they soon agreed that the democratic elections should take place on 27 April 1994, just over a year after Hani's assassination.<ref name=sparks/>

Assassins' conviction and amnesty hearing

In October 1993, both Janusz Waluś and Clive Derby-Lewis were convicted for the murder<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and sentenced to death. Derby-Lewis's wife, Gaye, was acquitted. Both men's sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished as a result of a Constitutional Court ruling in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Hani's killers appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, claiming political motivation for their crimes and applying for amnesty on the basis that they had acted on the orders of the Conservative Party. The Hani family was represented by the anti-apartheid lawyer George Bizos.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Their applications were denied when the TRC ruled that they had not acted under orders.<ref name=no-amnesty>Template:Cite news</ref> Following several failed attempts, Derby-Lewis was granted medical parole in May 2015 after he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer; he died 18 months later, on 3 November 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 10 March 2016, the North Gauteng High Court ordered Waluś to be released on parole under bail conditions.<ref name="mg.c_Chri">Template:Cite web</ref> The Department of Justice and Correctional Services lodged an appeal against the parole decision to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> The Department of Home Affairs has indicated that Waluś may have his South African citizenship revoked.<ref name=":1"/> On 18 August 2017, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein overturned Waluś's parole, a decision that was welcomed by the SACP.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> By October 2019, Waluś was still in prison, despite his lawyer's claim that he is completely rehabilitated.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 16 March 2020, Waluś was again denied parole by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 7 December 2022, Waluś was granted parole under strict conditions by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024, the government announced that Waluś was to be deported to Poland on 6 December with the Polish government paying for the proceedings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Finnaly Walus arrived in Poland on 7 December.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Absence of conspiracy

Hani's assassination has attracted numerous conspiracy theories about outside involvement. The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said it "was unable to find evidence that the two murderers convicted of the killing of Chris Hani took orders from international groups, security forces or from higher up in the right-wing echelons".<ref name="Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, Vol 2, Chapter 7 October 1998">Template:Cite web</ref>

Influence

Hani was a charismatic leader, with significant support among the radical anti-apartheid youth. At the time of his death, he was the most popular ANC leader after his senior, Nelson Mandela.<ref name=no-amnesty/> Following the legalisation of the ANC, His support for the negotiation process with the apartheid government was critical in keeping the militants in line. Despite starting off as an advocate for armed resistance, he was able to adapt to the needs of the people and moved towards peaceful political negotiations.<ref name=obituary>Template:Cite journal</ref>Hani also played a critical role in deepening the alliance between the SCAP, ANC and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These relationships played a big role in the success of the anti apartheid resistance movement. Chris Hani became a global figure for anti apartheid and resistance movements around the world.

In Poland the far right for years has supported Waluś and praised his racist murder.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In April 2025, the Never Again Association published a report on this phenomenon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honours

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In 1993, French philosopher Jacques Derrida dedicated Spectres de Marx (1993) to Hani.<ref>Jacques Derrida (1994), Spectres de Marx: l'état de la dette, le travail du deil et la nouvelle Internationale, Paris: Galilée, (Template:ISBN).</ref>

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In 1997, Baragwanath Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the world, was renamed the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in his memory.<ref>The history of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Template:Webarchive, chrishanibaragwanathhospital.co.za (accessed 3 November 2016)</ref> In September 2004, Hani was voted 20th in the controversial Top 100 Greatest South Africans poll.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Days after his assassination, the rock group Dave Matthews Band (whose lead singer and guitarist, Dave Matthews, is from South Africa) began playing what would become "#36", with lyrics and chorus referring to Hani's shooting.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A short opera, Hani, by composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen with libretto by film producer Mfundi Vundla, was commissioned by Cape Town Opera and the University of Cape Town, premiering at the Baxter Theatre on 21 November 2010.<ref>Tonight - 'Bonsai opera' revitalises genre, tonight.co.za</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A District Municipality in the Eastern Cape was named the Chris Hani District Municipality. This district includes Queenstown, Cofimvaba and Lady Frere.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga also bears his name.

In 2009, after extension of Cape Town's Central Line, the new terminus serving eastern areas of Khayelitsha was christened Chris Hani.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Recognitions

• Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto
• Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga
• Chris Hani District Municipality in Eastern Cape