A monument in honour of South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani has been vandalised, days after a court ordered the release of his far-right killer.
The court's decision to release his killer, Janusz Walus, on parole has caused outrage in ANC circles.Walus killed Hani in 1993 in a failed attempt to derail South Africa's transition from white-minority rule to democratic rule. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral, about a year before Mandela became South Africa's first black president, heralding the end of apartheid - a legalised system of racial discrimination against black people.
"The monument was vandalised on Saturday night. One of the pillars is badly damaged, one side just fell off. And the electric lighting system was stolen," Ekurhuleni council spokesman Zweli Dlamini told AFP news agency.In a joint statement, the ANC, South African Communist Party and the country's largest trade union federation said the vandalisation was "tantamount to a continuation of Chris Hani's assassination in the grave".