Apartheid-era politician Clive Derby-Lewis, who nearly sparked a full-blown race war on the eve of South Africa’s first all-race elections, passed away on Thursday after a long battle with lung cancer.
The 80-year-old who was released on medical parole last year after serving 22 years in jail, supplied the gun Janusz Walus used to kill former South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani.
It is alleged that Walus and Derby-Lewis also planned to kill other prominent leaders, including Nelson Mandela. Hani’s murder sparked riots around South Africa and about 22 people died.
Derby-Lewis confessed his role in the assassination in his application to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty. He said that he was acting “in defense of my people, who were threatened with a Communist take-over.”
“We were fighting against communism, and communism is the vehicle of the Antichrist,” he testified.
The application was denied in April 1999. In 2000, the Cape High Court dismissed an application by Derby-Lewis and Walus to overturn the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s decision.
Source PANA
