Waluś will have to decide whether to open a criminal case against attacker

Chris Hani's killer Januzs Waluś will have to open a criminal case with SAPS himself against the man who allegedly stabbed him at Kgoši Mampuru II Correctional Centre.

This is according to correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo who said while the department had instituted an investigation into the stabbing incident that took place on Tuesday, the criminal case would be left to Waluś's discretion.

“The criminal justice system in prison applies the same as it would ordinarily outside prison. Waluś would have to open a case himself, of course accompanied by correctional officials to the police station,” he said.

“An investigation [by correctional services] is already under way. We need to establish facts. What happened, how it happened, who was involved. The motive behind it and how was the weapon smuggled into the centre.”

Prison insiders have described Madonsela as a carpenter and a model prisoner who mostly kept to himself and always followed instructions.

It is alleged that he used a sharp object he may have smuggled from a prison woodwork workshop at which he works during the attack.

An insider at the prison workshop where Madonsela works as a carpenter described the 52-year-old as a calm person who kept to himself and worked when he needed to.

“We were all shocked that he did this. He is a very hard-working person, hands-on and knows how to follow instructions,”

The insider said Madonsela may have used a pair of scissors he smuggled out of the workshop into the cells. “The workshop has many loopholes. There is no proper inventory list of equipment, so when something goes missing it goes unnoticed.”

Madonsela was alleged to be angry that a group of inmates sided with Waluś in their bid for parole, saying that they could not be on the same side with the person who killed their comrade.

Madonsela was a member of Lifer's committee, a group representing prisoners serving life sentences and seeking parole. 

He is serving a life sentence after he was convicted of killing his colleague Lt-Col Authon Dominic Stevens and wounded Lt-Col Isak Karan at Thaba Tshwane Air Force College on November 8 2007.

Stevens had allegedly told him he was a “redundant k*****” who joined the SA Air Force due to the mercy of politics and that the force was not there to train politicians but soldiers.

 Nxumalo said the inmate had no record of previous violent incidents in custody and had been well behaved until Tuesday. In 2018, Madonsela had gone on a hunger strike after authorities denied him permission to attend his sister's funeral.

Meanwhile outside the prison, hundreds of ANC, SACP and Cosatu members marched to the prison in protest against Waluś being released on parole.

Last Monday, the Constitutional Court ordered justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola to release Waluś within 10 days.

Waluś was convicted of the 1993 assassination of the anti-apartheid activist and SA Communist Party general secretary. 

Marchers in SACP and ANC regalia could be heard screaming that Madonsela should be awarded the highest order in the country for doing “courageous and revolutionary work”.

SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila revealed the party had filed an application to reverse the ConCourt judgment that released Waluś on parole.

Mapaila said if Waluś can't be kept behind bars, they want him to spend his parole in SA and not be deported back to his home country of Poland.

Mapaila labelled Waluś an “unrepentant criminal”. 

“We're opposed to parole on the grounds that he's not been remorseful, he remains an unrepentant criminal assassin who had never engaged in a victim-offender dialogue with the family and asked for forgiveness.

“He never followed in those processes yet he had managed to mischievously abuse the law.

“This is unacceptable, he never apologised. We as communists, our rights are not protected. The constitution must protect our rights. This court has created a massive precedent in terms in how we treat criminals” Mapaila said. 

Waluś was previously stabbed in 2018.

On whether he would be released after his recovery, Nxumalo said: “All that's before us is an inmate who was granted placement and up until we receive a directive from the corrective authority we'll then do so. Ours is to ensure the inmate remains stable, fully recovers so we can take him back to his cell.”