By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
An inquest into the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Chief Albert Luthuli has started in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Monday.
ANC veterans including former Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, former KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele and former ANC treasurer-General Zweli Mkhize were among those who attended the proceedings.
A 1967 inquest ruled that Luthuli was walking on a railway line when he was struck by a train and died after fracturing his skull.
Activists and his family have long cast doubt on the official version of events, and have said they welcomed the re-opening of the inquest.
His grandson, Sandile Luthuli, said at Luthuli’s two surviving daughters were now aged 90 and 93 and were relieved to see the reopening of the inquest.
“It has been 57 years in the making,” Luthuli said, calling the death murder.
Luthuli, who at the time of his death was the leader of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for spearheading the fight against apartheid.
The ANC went on to lead the struggle against white-minority rule and came to power in 1994, following the first democratic elections.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has said that it “will be presenting evidence before the court in an attempt to have the initial findings into the deaths of Chief Luthuli… overturned”. It has not said what that evidence is.
Nearly six decades ago, the initial inquiry into the Nobel laureate’s death “found that there was no evidence which disclosed any criminal culpability on the part of any of the employees of the South African Railways or anyone else”, the NPA said.
The Luthuli case is one of two highly anticipated inquests into the deaths of anti-apartheid figures re-opening on Monday. The other concerns lawyer Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge, who was killed in 1981.
He had been stabbed 45 times and his throat had been slit.
An inquest into his death a year later failed to identify his murderers and it was only nine years later that they were revealed – when Butana Almond Nofemela, confessed to killing Mxenge and seven other ANC members.
He was part of a covert hit-squad, or counter-insurgency unit, that detained and killed anti-apartheid activists.
Nofemela, together with the squad’s commander Dirk Coetzee and David Tshikalange, were in 1997 found guilty of Mxenge’s murder but were granted amnesty by the TRC before the criminal case could be concluded.
Explaining the reopening of the inquest into Mxenge’s death last year, the justice ministry said this was because new evidence had emerged, suggesting that “certain critical information” had not been presented to the TRC.
In South Africa, inquests often look into determining how a person died and whether anyone should be held responsible for their death.
Delivering the opening remarks before Judge Qondeni Radebe, State Advocate Ncedile Dunywa painted a picture of how the justice system might have collaborated with apartheid police in subverting the truth behind the death, which many people suspected to be a murder.
Dunywa said the outcome of the inquest, held the same year Luthuli died, was not based on fact and evidence, “but rather on the suppression of justice aimed at ensuring that the perpetrators remained hidden and protected”.
He said Magistrate CI Boswell, who was appointed to preside over the inquest on Luthuli’s unnatural death, wrote correspondence on August 4, 1967, preempting the outcome even before the evidence was presented before him.
Dunywa said there were witnesses whose testimony at the then inquest was not watertight, yet Boswell ruled in confirmation of his opinion to the Secretary of Justice.
The first to testify was Captain Godisamang Frank Kgamanyane of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.
He provided the detail on he investigated the alleged political murder that had taken place 57 years ago.
He said he faced challenges as the docket had been discarded due to the fact there was a policy that authorised the docket to be thrown away after a certain period.
He said he then relied on the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Museum, whose employee Brian Xaba helped him with archived information, including books such as the ‘Let My People Go’ and the ‘Nobel Peace Prize Winner’.
He said he also relied on the Luthuli family members, among others and he thoroughly studied the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.
He also manages to lay his hands on the medical report, which was compiled by neurosurgeons at the Stanger Hospital on the body.
Another investigator, Colonel Johannes Mothle, who was assigned to investigate TRC cases and took over the investigation from Kgamanyane, also consulted many people, including the Luthulis and an accident scene simulator, but was not sure if the expert conducted the simulation because he had to leave the province.
Mothle will continue with his testimony on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the proceedings in the Mxenge matter were postponed to 17 June 2025.
This is to allow members of the security police in the 1980s who are named in the case to obtain legal representation.
Evidence leader, Adv. Siyabonga Ngcobo has told Judge Pieter Bezuidenhout that the former Vlakplaas commander, Coetzee and Joe Mamasela are among these witnesses.
Coetzee told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that Mxenge was brutally murdered before his car was set alight near the Oshoek border post to eSwatini in 1981.
Mxenge’s daughter says she and her family will only be able to heal once the truth about her father’s murder comes to light.
Nomadidi Mxenge-Makhanya was only eight years old when her father was killed. Her mother, Victoria, kept the law practice going until she was gunned down in 1985.
Mxenge-Makhanya says her family was never the same after her father’s death. “Yes, we are grateful that the truth is going to come out. It is going to open up wounds, but I think it is best that it comes out. We will heal when we know the truth. We will heal when justice is done.”