[1] The assassination, later tied to members within the Conservative Party, occurred outside Hani's home in Dawn Park during a peak period of progressive anti-apartheid momentum in South Africa.
[3] Due to his commitment to the MK, Hani was arrested under the ‘Suppression of Communism Act’ and exiled to Lesotho in 1963, where he changed his name to Chris (previously Thembisile) to assist in his hiding.
After the election of the white-dominant National Party in 1948, South Africa was characterised by apartheid, an ingrained and dominating system of institutionalised segregation which encouraged the discrimination of coloured demographics.
Margareta Harmse, an Afrikaans housewife, recognised Waluś and his vehicle and immediately called the police, leading to his arrest and interrogation by Sergeant Holmes of the Boksburg Murder and Robbery Squad by 7pm the same day.
[12] Soon after, Clive Derby-Lewis, the Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs for the Conservative Party of South Africa at the time, was arrested for complicity in Hani's assassination as he had lent Waluś the modified Z88 9 mm pistol used in the attack.
[14] While on trial, Derby-Lewis expressed his desire to engage the country into a race war to disrupt the reconciliation progress ahead of the proposed 1994 democratic elections, a time at which negotiations regarding the ending of apartheid were at a climax.
During investigations, police uncovered a list of assassination targets compiled by Waluś and Derby-Lewis that featured the residential addresses and names of figurehead left-wing political leaders including Joe Slovo and Nelson Mandela.
Additionally theories suggest collusion between Clive Derby-Lewis and Thabo Mbeki, second President of South Africa, due to the large political gain he received as a result of the Hani assassination.
[19] Media claims and National Intelligence Agency reports since the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing have suggested involved conspiracy from the Vlakplaas C-10 counterinsurgency police force within the initial stages of the murder.
[20] Janusz Waluś was born in communist Poland on 14 January 1953 and gained residence in South Africa in 1981 to work as a glass maker and truck driver with his father and brother.
Later, Waluś joined the National Party and Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, committing his support of far-right politics and their goals to suppress the spread of communism and racial equality through South Africa.
Although not testifying at trial, during his 1997 amnesty hearing Waluś openly emphasised the political intent of the assassination "to plunge the country into a state of chaos which would allow the right to take over",[22] and recalled his experiences in Communist Poland as personal motivation for the crimes.
Due to his strong public support of apartheid and extreme right-wing policies, Derby-Lewis has been described by Harry Schwartz, his opposing minister, as the "biggest racist in Parliament".
[2] Nelson Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in December 1995 to enable the exposure of all political crimes during the apartheid in attempt to assist South Africa's transition to democracy.
[25] In 1997 Waluś and Derby-Lewis applied for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the grounds that their actions were political in nature, and that the assassination was as result of orders from the Conservative Party.