http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=524454
Communists backtrack on Mbeki, Hani claims
But party still wants judicial inquiry into killing of Comrade Chris
THE SA Communist Party says it has never believed that President Thabo Mbeki had anything to do with the death of Chris Hani.
In an attempt to prevent a further deterioration in its relationship with the ANC, the party’s general secretary, Blade Nzimande, said yesterday that the Communist Party had never linked Mbeki to Hani’s killing in 1993 by right-wingers belonging to the defunct Conservative Party.
“We have never said (that), officially or unofficially, and we are not aware of any other member of the SACP who has actually fingered any leader in our movement as being responsible for the killing of Comrade Chris,” said Nzimande.
He blamed the media for misinterpreting the SACP’s song Thabo Mbeki siyabuza. Ngubani owabulala uChris Hani simthanda? (Thabo Mbeki, tell us: Who killed our beloved Chris Hani?) as linking the president to the former SACP general secretary’s assassination.
“We must protect the image of our president. He is our president, our head of state, and should be accorded the respect he deserves. I don’t think that we should confuse alliance debates (with) disrespect or (with the idea that we want) to tarnish the image of the president,” said Nzimande.
The ANC last week said that insinuations that Mbeki was somehow linked to the assassination of Hani were “deeply hurtful and patently irresponsible”.
Nzimande’s statement comes only days after lawyers representing the two men convicted of Hani’s killing wrote an open letter to the SACP in which they urged its leaders to meet their clients to “clear up any doubts which may still exist” about the killing.
But yesterday Nzimande said the SACP would not meet Hani’s killers, Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis. He suggested that if they had anything new to say they should approach the law enforcement agencies.
“We don’t want these guys to play political (games) : we visit them ... they turn this thing into some kind of political exchange. We are aware that they want a pardon and we have come to the conclusion that there is no need to visit them,” Nzimande said.
The SACP took offence at the killers’ ultimatum, which gave them 14 days to respond to the invitation.
“We are not accountable to criminals and murderers, but (we are) guided by our quest for the whole truth to be exposed regarding the assassination.”
Nzimande said the SACP did not believe that Walus and Derby-Lewis committed the crime alone, hence their call for a judicial inquest.
