BARNEY'S TRIBUTE VIDEO OF THE DAY

A man who fought for the freedom of everyone who lived in South Africa, Chris Hani was who's death changed South Africa, for the better!

Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993) was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of 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.

 

Chris Hani was assassinated on 10 April 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a racially mixed suburb of Boksburg. A Polish far-right immigrant named Janusz Waluś, who shot him in the head and at the back as he stepped out of his car, accosted him. Waluś fled the scene, but was arrested soon afterwards after Hani's neighbor, a white Afrikaner woman, called the police. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party M.P. and Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs at the time, who had lent Waluś his pistol, was also arrested for complicity in Hani's murder.[4] The Conservative Party of South Africa (Konserwatiewe Party van Suid-Afrika) has broken away from the ruling National Party out of opposition to the reforms of PW Botha. After the elections of 1989, It was the second-strongest party in the House of Assembly, after the NP, and opposed FW 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