The Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed an application by Chris Hani’s widow Limpho Hani and the South African Communist Party (SACP) to rescind the order the court made last month ordering that convicted murderer Janusz Walus be placed on parole.
Walus was released on Wednesday after the Constitutional Court ruled that he should be released on parole.
The SACP and Hani’s widow have on several occasions voiced their dissatisfaction with the apex court’s decision to release Walus on parole.
In their application to have Walus’ release from prison reversed, the SACP and Hani argued that the court’s judgement had a patent error.
They said the judgement “omitted to deal with the applicants’ submissions or did not fully engage or examine or inquire into and/or analyse and/ or fully consider the applicants’ written submissions filed in this court”.
They also claimed that the court made “a patent error in that it did not fully evaluate or analyse the applicants’ submissions in view of the first respondent’s submissions.”
But the court dismissed the application to have Walus’ release reconsidered.
In its order on Friday, the court said it had considered the application and concluded it should be dismissed because the applicants failed to make out a case for rescission or reconsideration.
It said the fact that Walus never made a full disclosure before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was not one of the factors that needed to be taken into account in terms of the department of correctional services’ policy or the Correctional Services Act in determining whether parole should be granted.
The court further mentioned that it noted an overlap between Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and the SACP’s application to oppose Walus’ release.
Walus is out on parole and the Constitutional Court remains firm in its decision to grant him parole.
Source: Times Live, Eyewitness News, Briefly, image from Twitter: @RantsSouth