Janusz Waluś is a Polish immigrant to South Africa who assassinated South African Communist Party

South African Communist Party

South African Communist Party is a political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H...

 chairman Chris Hani

Chris Hani

Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani 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 . He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government...

 on April 10, 1993.

The timing of the event, just prior to the first democratic elections in South Africa, caused considerable political tension in the country. Only Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

's personal pleas for calm were able to defuse the situation.

The assassination was ultimately unsuccessful at derailing the dismantling of apartheid. For the murder Walus and his accomplice, Conservative

Conservative Party (South Africa)

The Conservative Party of South Africa was a conservative party formed in 1982 as a breakaway from the ruling National Party...

 MP Clive Derby-Lewis

Clive Derby-Lewis

Clive John Derby-Lewis is a South African ex-politician, who was involved first in the National Party and then, while serving as a Member of Parliament, in the Conservative Party. He is serving a life sentence for his role in the assassination of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani...

, were sentenced to death, but later commuted to life imprisonment following the abolition of the death penalty in South Africa in 1995.