The African National Congress (ANC) and its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions have said that the parole granted to Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Waluś is a slap in the face to the country’s democracy.

The alliance partners picketed at the Kgosi Mampuru II prison, on Wednesday, ahead of Waluś's release.

Waluś was stabbed by a fellow inmate at the prison on Tuesday but is in a stable condition.

“We are saying we are here and have joined the alliance partners and the entire people of South Africa to march and say that the Constitutional Court has taken a decision that is not sober and that it must see the consequences of what it has done. It is also important that Waluś reveals who actually sent him to kill Comrade Hani,” said SACP general-secretary Solly Mapaila.

The picketing also comes after Hani’s memorial site was vandalised.

The alliance partners said while this was a provocation they remained calm.

Mapaila said Hani’s assassination permanently deprived his wife, Limpho Hani, and their children a life with a husband and a father, with other far-reaching traumatic implications.

“By assassinating Chris Hani, the assassins were defending the racist, oppressive and super-exploitative apartheid regime. Their aim was to block the transition from the apartheid regime to the democratic dispensation. The assassins wanted to see apartheid continue in perpetuity. The weapon the assassins used was taken from military armoury under tight apartheid security conditions. This is one of the numerous indicators that show the two assassins did not plan and execute the assassination alone and did not make full disclosure of the truth, as no other person was held accountable for the assassination of Chris Hani,” said Mapaila.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said Waluś’s release was an act of provocation by the Constitutional Court and that it undermined the efforts of the people who fought against apartheid.

“This is a slap in the face to South Africans who survived an attempt to plant this country into civil war by Janus Walus and his enablers. What is even more heartbreaking is that Chris Hani fought and sacrificed his life for us to have democracy and the democratic institutions that we have. To see a Constitutional Court that was actually built on the scarifies of comrade Chris Hani, emboldening white supremacists by releasing [Walus] is really a stab in the back,” he said.

The alliance partners have vowed to continue to mobilise in honour of Hani.