By Sinazo Keswa
Chris Hani, whose late brother's name he had to adopt as an alias when joining uMkhonto we Sizwe, was born on 28 June 1942 in Sabalele village, Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape, South Africa. His real name, Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the 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 sympathizer of the Conservative opposition, on 10 April 1993, during the unrest preceding the transition to democracy.
Hani was exposed to the politics of inequality early in life when his father had to leave their rural home in search of work in the urban areas of South Africa. This profoundly influenced the young Chris, who became aware of his mother's struggle to run the household. Like other young men of his age, Chris tended to the livestock until he reached school-going age.
At 15, he joined the ANC Youth League and was active in protests against the Bantu Education Act. He later worked as a clerk for a law firm. After graduating, he joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC. Following his arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act, he went into exile in Lesotho in 1963. Due to Hani's involvement with Umkhonto we Sizwe, he was forced into hiding by the South African government and changed his first name to Chris.
He received military training in the Soviet Union and served in campaigns in the Zimbabwean War of Liberation, also known as the Rhodesian Bush War. These were joint operations between Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army in the late 1960s. The Luthuli Detachment operation solidified Hani's reputation as a soldier in the anti-apartheid army. His role as a fighter from the earliest days of MK's exile was crucial to the fierce loyalty Hani later enjoyed in some quarters as MK's Deputy Commander. In 1969, Hani co-signed, with six others, the "Hani Memorandum," which strongly criticized the leadership of Joe Modise, Moses Kotane, and other comrades in the leadership.
In 1974, Hani re-entered South Africa to establish an underground infrastructure for the ANC in the Western Cape. He entered the country from Botswana on foot and spent four months in Johannesburg. He helped set up underground units and a communications system, establishing various routes through the country.
Hani then moved to Lesotho, where he organized units of the MK for guerrilla operations in South Africa. By 1982, he had become prominent enough in the ANC to be the focus of several assassination attempts. In 1983, he was transferred from Lesotho to Lusaka, Zambia, and elected to the ANC National Executive Committee. By 1987, he became the Chief of Staff of the MK and rose to senior membership of the SACP.
After the unbanning of ANC and SACP in 1990, Hani returned to South Africa and became a charismatic and popular speaker in townships. By 1990, he was known to be a close associate of Joe Slovo, the General-Secretary of the SACP. When Slovo announced that he had cancer in 1991, Hani took over as General-Secretary
In 1992, Hani stepped down as Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe to devote more time to the organization of the SACP. He campaigned for the SACP in townships around South Africa, seeking to redefine its place as a national political party.
Hani was described as charming, passionate, and charismatic, and soon attracted a cult-like following. He was the only political leader who seemed to have influence over the radical township self-defense groups that had parted from the authority of the ANC.
On 10 April 1993, as he returned home to the racially mixed suburb of Dawn Park, Boksberg (Johannesburg), Hani was assassinated by Januzs Walus, an anti-Communist Polish refugee with close links to the White nationalist AWB. Also implicated in the assassination was Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis
Hani's death came at a critical time for South Africa. The SACP was on the brink of gaining significant status as an independent political party. The assassination helped persuade the bickering negotiators of the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum to finally set a date for South Africa's first democratic election.
Walus and Derby-Lewis were captured, sentenced, and jailed within a short period of the assassination. Both were initially sentenced to death but had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. In 1997, they applied for amnesty through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. Despite claims that they were working for the Conservative Party, the TRC effectively ruled that Hani had been assassinated by right-wing extremists acting independently. Walus and Derby-Lewis are currently serving their sentence in a maximum-security prison near Pretoria.
By Sinazo Keswa