The SA Communist Party expressed disappointment in the High Court in Pretoria’s decision on Friday to grant Clive Derby-Lewis medical parole.

The SACP continued to call on Derby-Lewis to come clean about who hired him to kill their leader Chris Hani.

“Let all South Africans never forget that Derby-Lewis was involved in an active conspiracy that was not simply directed against the SACP,” national acting spokesperson Mhlekwa Nxumalo said in a statement.

“On the hit list found on [Janusz] Walus were other names and residential details, including those for Nelson Mandela.

“The intention of the conspiracy, on the admission of the culprits themselves, was to shipwreck the negotiated transition to democracy, and plunge South Africa into a racial civil war.”

He said the SACP had never been opposed to him getting parole, however it felt that full disclosure should have been an unconditional requirement.

The SACP was asking Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha to appeal the decision.

Masutha’s spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said the justice ministry would explore whether it has any grounds to appeal.

After an extensive court battle, Judge Selby Baqwa ruled earlier on Friday that Derby-Lewis’s medical parole was immediately effective, saying the former Conservative Party leader had shown remorse.

The 79-year-old has spent over 21 years behind bars and is said to be dying of lung cancer. In January, he had been given just six more months to live.

Law should run its course

Masutha, who in January denied Derby-Lewis parole, had to determine the parole conditions along with the medical parole board by June 5.

Derby-Lewis had provided the gun which was used to murder Hani outside his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg, in 1993.

The Democratic Alliance on Friday urged Masutha to come to a fair and equitable determination in regard to Derby-Lewis’s parole conditions.

“It is important to note that the DA has always condemned the senseless murder of Chris Hani and believed that the law should run its course,” DA MP James Selfe said in a statement.

“If medical practitioners are of the opinion that Clive Derby-Lewis’s illness is serious enough to warrant medical parole, the minister, not being a medical practitioner, is not in the position to comment on whether Derby-Lewis is incapacitated or not.

“A process was set in place, the minister must respect it.” News24