Chris Hani

Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani (June 28, 1942 – April 10, 1993) was the leader of the South African Communist Party and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government. He was assassinated on 10 April 1993.

Early life

Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani, was born on June 28, 1942 in the small town of Cofimvaba in Transkei. He was the fifth of six children. He attended Lovedale school and later studied modern and classical literature at the University of Fort Hare.

Political career

At age 15 Hani joined the ANC Youth League. As a student he was active in protests against the Bantu Education Act. Following his graduation, 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.

He received military training in the Soviet Union and served in campaigns in the Rhodesian Bush War in what is now Zimbabwe. In Lesotho he was 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 ANC members in detention camps, but denied any role in abuses including torture and murder.

He 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 in 1991.

Assassination

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 anti-communist immigrant named Janusz Walus, who shot him in the head as he stepped out of his car. Walus fled the scene, but was arrested soon afterwards. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party M.P., who had loaned Walus his pistol, was also arrested for complicity in Hani's murder.

Hani's assassination was part of a plot by the far right in South Africa to derail the negotiations to end apartheid. An alleged hit list of senior ANC and SACP figures found in the Derby-Lewis home included Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo at numbers one and two. Hani was number three on the list.

Historically it is seen as a turning point. Serious tensions following 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 then not president of the country. The feared violence did not erupt, and the two sides of the negotiation process were in fact galvanised into action, agreeing a date for democratic elections which occurred on 27 April 1994, just over a year after Hani's assassination.

Both Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death for the murder. Clive Derby-Lewis's wife Gaye Derby-Lewis, also a senior Conservative Party figure, was acquitted and she moved to Australia short afterwards. The two men's sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished as a result of a Constitutional Court ruling in 1995. Ironically this occurred because of the adoption of South Africa's new constitution, which they had fought against.

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. Their applications were controversially denied when the TRC ruled that they were not acting on orders. They are still in prison.

Influence

Hani was seen as a charismatic populist leader, with significant support among radical youth. At the time of his death, he was the most popular ANC leader after Nelson Mandela, and was sometimes perceived as a rival to the more moderate party leadership. However, following the unbanning of the ANC, his support for the negotiation process with the apartheid government was probably critical in keeping the militants in line.

Given his popularity and relative youth (he was 51 when he was killed), had he lived, he would have been a strong candidate for a position as deputy president or even president in a future ANC government of South Africa.

Trivia

In 1997, Baragwanath Hospital - one of the largest hospitals in the world - was renamed the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in his memory.

He was voted 20th in the controversial Top 100 Greatest South Africans poll.

Four days after his assassination, the rock group Dave Matthews Band (whose guitarist, Dave Matthews, is from South Africa) began playing a song, #36, to honor Hani. A live favorite for years, the music evolved into the basic foundation of the 2001 single, Everyday.