Chris Hani (28 June 194210 April 1993; born Martin Thembisile Hani ) was a South African military commander, politician and revolutionary. He served as the leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the former armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of apartheid, and was assassinated by Janusz Waluś, a Polish immigrant and sympathiser of the Conservative opposition on 10 April 1993, during the unrest preceding the transition to democracy.
Early life and education
Martin Thembisile Hani was born on 28 June 1942 in the Xhosa village in Cofimvaba, Transkei. His father, Gilbert Hani, was a mine union worker and political activist who left the country to go into exile in 1962 and returned to South Africa in 1991. His mother, Mary Hani, had never attended school. Chris was the fifth of six children. In Lovedale school, Hani joined the ANC Youth League when he was 15 years old, even though political activities were not allowed at black schools under apartheid. He influenced other students to join the ANC.
In 1959, at the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, Hani studied English, Latin, He was also a graduate of Rhodes University.
Political and military career
At the age of 15, he joined the ANC Youth League. As a student, he was active in protests against the Bantu Education Act. He worked as a clerk for a law firm. In 1961, Hani joined a communist party led by Comrade Mbeki where he first started learning and reading about Marxism. Following his graduation, Hani joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC. He credited his commitment to the MK as a result of his exposure to the extreme side of apartheid during his upbringing. Hani said, "I didn't get involved with the workers' struggle out of theory alone. It was a combination of theory and my own class background." Following his arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act, he went into exile in Lesotho in 1963. This memorandum was also a cry to radicalize the anti-apartheid movement in the ANC. Hani saw the overreliance on diplomatic negotiations as inefficient and was critical of the separation between the leaders of the ANC and the fighters of the MK. Hani stressed the fact in the memorandum by saying, "the ANC is the vanguard of the revolutionary struggle in South Africa and it is strange that its leaders have not been obliged to take the M.K. oath". Hani and the signatories of the memorandum aimed to unite both parties while also holding leaders of the ANC accountable for complacency.
In Lesotho, Hani organised guerrilla operations of the MK in South Africa. By 1982, he had become prominent enough to have become 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 anti-Communist ANC members in detention camps, but denied any role in abuses including torture and murder.
Having spent time as a clandestine organiser in South Africa in the mid-1970s, he permanently 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 (SACP) on 8 December 1991. He supported the suspension of the ANC's armed struggle in favour of negotiations, as well as including a multi-party political system. Hani also pushed for radical economic reform in South Africa. He put great effort in advocating for a socialist economy. Social redistribution as well as protecting labor rights were central in Hani's push to improve the South African economy post apartheid. In an interview in 1993, Hani explained how creating a socio economic restructure would be a massive job for South Africans.
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 far-right anti-communist immigrant named Janusz Waluś, who shot him as he stepped out of his car. Waluś fled the scene but was soon arrested after Margareta Harmse, a white Afrikaner housewife, saw Waluś straight after the crime as she was driving past, and called the police. A neighbour of Hani also witnessed the crime and later identified both Waluś and the vehicle he was driving at the time. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party MP and Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs at the time, who had lent Waluś his pistol, was also arrested for complicity in Hani's murder. The Conservative Party of South Africa had broken away from the ruling National Party out of opposition to the reforms of P. W. Botha. After the elections of 1989, it was the second-strongest party in the House of Assembly, after the National Party, and opposed F. W. de Klerk's dismantling of apartheid.
Historically, the assassination is seen as a turning point. Serious tensions followed 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 not yet president of the country:
While riots followed the assassination, and sentenced to death. Derby-Lewis's wife, Gaye, was acquitted. Both men's sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished as a result of a Constitutional Court ruling in 1995.
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. The Hani family was represented by the anti-apartheid lawyer George Bizos. Their applications were denied when the TRC ruled that they had not acted under orders. Following several failed attempts, Derby-Lewis was granted medical parole in May 2015 after he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer; he died 18 months later, on 3 November 2016.
On 10 March 2016, the north Gauteng High Court ordered Waluś to be released on parole under bail conditions. The Department of Justice and Correctional Services lodged an appeal against the parole decision to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The Department of Home Affairs has indicated that Waluś may have his South African citizenship revoked. By October 2019, Waluś was still in prison, despite his lawyer's claim that he is completely rehabilitated. On 16 March 2020, Waluś was again denied parole by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola. On 7 December 2022, Waluś was granted parole under strict conditions by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola. In 2024, the government announced that Waluś was to be deported to Poland on 6 December, with the Polish Government paying for the proceedings. Waluś arrived in Poland on 7 December 2024.
Conspiracy theories
Hani's assassination has attracted numerous conspiracy theories about outside involvement. The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said it "was unable to find evidence that the two murderers convicted of the killing of Chris Hani took orders from international groups, security forces or from higher up in the right-wing echelons".
Influence
Hani was a charismatic leader, with significant support among the radical anti-apartheid youth. At the time of his death, he was the most popular ANC leader after his senior, Nelson Mandela. Hani also played a critical role in deepening the alliance between the SCAP, ANC, and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). These relationships played a big role in the success of the anti-apartheid resistance movement. Chris Hani became a global figure for anti apartheid and resistance movements around the world.
In Poland, the far right has supported Waluś and praised his murder. In April 2025, the Never Again Association published a report on this phenomenon.
Recognition and legacy
thumb|220x124px | Chris Hani monument
Honours and awards
Hani was the recipient of many posthumous awards, including:
Places
In 1997, Baragwanath Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the world, was renamed the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in his memory.
A District Municipality in the Eastern Cape was named the Chris Hani District Municipality.
The Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga also bears his name.
In 2009, after the extension of Cape Town's Central Line, the new railway terminus serving eastern areas of Khayelitsha was named Chris Hani.
Other recognition
Days after his assassination, the rock group Dave Matthews Band (whose lead singer and guitarist, Dave Matthews, is from South Africa) began playing what would become "#36", with lyrics and chorus referring to Hani's shooting.
In 1993, French philosopher Jacques Derrida dedicated Spectres de Marx (1993) to Hani.
In September 2004, Hani was voted 20th in the SABC's Top 100 Greatest South Africans poll.
A short opera, Hani, by composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen with libretto by film producer Mfundi Vundla, was commissioned by Cape Town Opera and the University of Cape Town, premiering at the Baxter Theatre on 21 November 2010.
Personal life
Hani married Limpho in 1974 at a magistrate's court in Lusaka, Zambia; they had a celebratory wedding lunch at Wimpy. The couple had three daughters together: Neo, Nomakhwezi, and Lindiwe. Nomakhwezi died aged 23 in 2001.