Comparing Derby-Lewis to Shaik is dangerous

The decision of a full bench of the North Gauteng High Court to dismiss the parole application of Chris Hani’s murderer, Clive Derby-Lewis has invariably drawn criticism from various quarters. Of primary interest to me are those who would compare Shaik being granted parole with the rejection of Derby-Lewis as well as those suggesting that this might be a slight on the Afrikaans community.

At the outset it is my view that Schabir Shaik being granted parole is highly questionable as things stand and the continued refusal by the government and Correctional Services to play open cards on the medical reports is simply exacerbating the perception that this was favours for cronies. That said it would be wrong to lose sight of the crimes upon which Shaik was convicted. Convictions on fraud and corruption, particularly where those allegations may impact on the future president of the country, are very serious indeed. Accordingly the parole board should have weighed that into granting Shaik parole and gone overboard on transparency in terms of the evidence upon which medical parole was based. Needless to say this has not been the approach and the knives are out.

The case of Derby-Lewis on the other hand is on another level altogether. Derby-Lewis and his co-accused, Janusz Walus, were found guilty of the murder of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani in 1993 and sentenced to death. This was reduced to a sentence of life imprisonment of which Derby-Lewis has now served 15 years.

In 1993 when pre-election tensions were running high and sabre rattling from both the Right and the Left was reaching fever pitch, Derby-Lewis and his accomplice decided to take one of the most popular and senior members of the tripartite-alliance out of the game. It was a move that can only have been designed to derail the process which would culminate in the multiracial elections of 1994 and must have had in its contemplation a full-blown civil war in South Africa. At best for Derby-Lewis perhaps only a monumental bloodbath with the lines so badly distorted that it would have taken years if not decades to unravel.

In terms of the white community alone, included in which is a majority Afrikaans community, the vote to proceed with a multiracial democracy had already been taken. Accordingly and should the plotters have achieved their goal when they murdered Hani, then brother may well have landed up fighting brother in the midst of a larger civil war in which whites were fighting blacks with defeat going to the victors. The victors, if they had been white would then be in charge of a fortress in a far worse economic position than the one which acted as a catalyst to bring apartheid to an end, if it was the black leadership which emerged as “victorious” they would be in a position similar to the one Germany found itself in just after WWII.

This was the South Africa that Derby-Lewis and his cohorts deliberately or reckless of the consequences of their actions could have occasioned.

“My feelings are under this current political dispensation there’s no administrative justice for especially Afrikaner people like Clive Derby-Lewis,” said Marius Coertze, Derby-Lewis’s lawyer. “If you look at the Schabir Shaik case, it’s a travesty of justice that Shaik can get parole offered to him on a silver platter and a person like Clive Derby-Lewis has to fight tooth and nail and still fails.”

I fully understand how Coertze must have felt when he came out of court after a high-profile matter and found himself besieged by the press. I do, however, feel that that comment needs to be clarified.

If he is suggesting that Afrikaans people aren’t getting a fair shake of the dice on the question of parole then please bring it to my attention and I will highlight their plight. Do not, however, equate or use terms like “Afrikaner people like Clive Derby-Lewis” in trying to put forward the case of the community. Unless someone is suggesting that there are a substantial number of political assassins to be found in this community.

In many societies the world over, Derby-Lewis’s act would be considered worthy of the death sentence (as it was here) or life without parole. He is anything but representative of the Afrikaans community who have, like all our other communities, played a vital role in building this country and sustaining its democracy.

Shaik epitomises sleaze and corruption, which needs to be stamped out, but Derby-Lewis represents humanity in its lowest form; where the value of human life is totally disregarded in the name of preserving privilege and political power.

The Afrikaans community is far better than that.