Hani accused appear in court

WEARING a carnation in his lapel, Clive Derby-Lewis, his wife Gaye, and Polish-born Janusz Walus entered a Boksburg courtroom yesterday to face charges of murdering the African National Congress leader Chris Hani.

As a small group of ANC demonstrators gathered outside the magistrate's court, state prosecutors quickly requested and obtained an adjournment until 21 May. Investigations were continuing, they said.

Mr Derby-Lewis, a member of F W de Klerk's presidential council and a former Conservative Party MP, was arrested with his wife and the alleged gunman, Mr Walus, for the assassination of Mr Hani on 10 April. They have come to symbolise the apparent desire of right-wing extremists to eliminate senior ANC officials in an effort to thwart multi-party negotiations to set up a transitional government leading to South Africa's first all-race general elections next year.

Police have confirmed the discovery of a plot to kill Joe Slovo, who, like Mr Hani, was a leader of the Communist Party (SACP) and was one of the first members of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the ANC's military wing. . The Star newspaper reported that the plot against Mr Slovo, hatched after Mr Hani's assassination, included as targets Winnie Mandela, the estranged wife of the ANC President Nelson Mandela, and Peter Mokaba, the ANC Youth League leader. Mr Mokaba caused a stir recently when he chanted: 'Kill the Boers, kill the farmers.'

Among the supporters of the Derby-Lewises at yesterday's hearing was Nick Strydom, a member of the tiny extremist right-wing faction, Wit Wolwe (White Wolves), and father of Barend Strydom, the man who gunned down seven people in Pretoria in 1988.