WATCH: 'Chris Hani had to be killed,' says unrepentent Derby-Lewis in last interview

Johannesburg - Former Communist Party leader Chris Hani had to be murdered because he was an uncontrollable radical who was targeting civilians, according to Clive Derby-Lewis in his last interview before his recent death.

"Chris Hani was a hardline communist who was determined at all costs, even to lay the country to waste, to achieve his political aims. He was a radical, he was uncontrollable by the ANC higher authorities, he was a man who targeted civilians in preference to military targets.

"And as far as we were concerned, he was public enemy number one."

Derby-Lewis was interviewed by Forum Films on September 2. It was the only interview conducted with him after he was released from prison on medical parole in June 2015 after serving 22 years for his role in Hani's murder in 1993, Netwerk24 reported.

Derby-Lewis, 80, died from lung cancer on November 3.

Part 1


Part 2


He requested that the 70-minute interview be released after his death.

The first of four parts of the interview, The Derby-Lewis Disclosure, was released on Monday.

In it, Derby-Lewis said he was opposed to former president Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990 because he refused to renounce violence.

He also said he believed the media mischievously branded the term apartheid "apart-hate" but it was essentially a "separate development" policy. Derby-Lewis maintained that he still believed it was a successful policy because three of the four homelands had thrived.

De Klerk dishonest

The goal of separate development was for African tribes to be able to govern themselves, leading to something similar to the European Union, with "self-governing sovereign states all co-operating to the benefit of everyone", he said.

The Conservative Party should have boycotted the 1992 referendum on political change, which was based on threats and intimidation and was "a complete swindle", he said. They wanted an election instead, and he believed they could have won it.

Derby-Lewis said the National Party was negotiating with the ANC in exile to ensure their future positions in a black-ruled South Africa.

"They were totally dishonest. In fact, [former president FW] De Klerk himself was dishonest to his own constituency because that announcement he made releasing Mandela and unbanning the Communist Party and the ANC he made on his own... He had already taken dictatorial rights and decided for the people."