Hani's clothes still with cops

2003-03-04 21:50

Sarie van Niekerk

Boksburg - The clothes Chris Hani was wearing when he was assassinated almost 10 years ago are still locked in a police safe and his next-of-kin have not been informed they could claim them after the case.

Enquiries filed by Beeld put the cat among the pigeons and finally resulted in vague, deceptive answers.

Hani was assassinated on April 10, 1993, in the driveway of his home in Hakea Street, Dawn Park.

His killers, Clive Derby-Lewis and Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, were given the death sentence in the Johannesburg High Court on October 15 that year. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

In law, the evidence - in this case, Hani's bloodied clothes - used in the trial has to be disposed of by the investigating team's commander or police station directly after the trial ends.

Procedures have not been completed

Beeld was told at the weekend that evidence was still being stored in SAP 13 police stores and that Hani's family had never been told they were entitled to his clothes.

The law states that if a family declines to claim evidence, an order has to be obtained to destroy it.

Asked how it was possible for the evidence to have been kept at the SAP 13 stores for almost 10 years, Gauteng communications chief director Henriette Bester was terse and to the point.

"Evidence connected with the Chris Hani case was handed to police.

"Evidence was not destroyed because procedures have not been completed."

Limpho Hani, the widow refused to say on Monday whether police had told her about the clothes.

A family friend, however, confirmed to Beeld that the family had never been asked to fetch Hani's clothes from the police station.

- Beeld