By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) veteran Jeff Radebe took the witness stand at the reopened inquest into Chief Albert Luthuli’s death, as the ANC attempts to set the record straight about what really happened to its leader.
Last week, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg heard testimony from Luthuli’s family and Hawks detectives.
Luthuli died in 1967, with the inquest at the time ruling his death as accidental, saying he was hit by a steam train.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is disputing this and is seeking to have the initial findings of the inquest overturned.
Radebe believes the apartheid government was threatened by Luthuli’s leadership, popularity, and international recognition.
He added that Luthuli’s ability to continue political work despite severe state repression made him a formidable opponent.
“The dynamic and effective leadership of Chief Luthuli changed the ANC forever, “Radebe told the court.
“From a conservative organisation in 1912, to a radical movement that launched the Defiance Campaign in 1952, and later embarked on the armed struggle in 1961, Chief Luthuli was at the centre of that transformation.
“His influence crossed racial lines. He was internationally respected, especially after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
With the armed struggle in Zimbabwe looming, the apartheid regime likely saw his continued leadership as intolerable.”
Radebe cited recently surfaced correspondence between apartheid security operatives as further proof of how seriously the state viewed Luthuli.
“That letter shows the Special Branch considered him a serious threat. Despite numerous banning orders, he outwitted them. holding secret meetings with ANC leadership and discussing highly sensitive matters.
“Even after the ANC was banned in 1961, he remained active in the liberation effort.”
Radebe, a trained lawyer, also criticised the judiciary under apartheid, describing it as an instrument of the oppressive state.
“The judiciary wasn’t independent, it was part of the machinery of subjugation. The 1967 inquest that ruled Luthuli’s death an accident cannot be trusted,” he said.
He referred to a letter written by the magistrate who oversaw the original inquest, addressed to the Secretary of Justice, as proof that due process was compromised.
“A presiding officer communicating directly with the executive violates the doctrine of separation of powers.
That magistrate prejudged the matter, undermining the rule of law.
“There was no separation between the bench and the state, magistrates acted as an extension of the apartheid regime.”
Radebe also placed Luthuli’s death in a broader pattern of political assassinations of liberation leaders across the continent.
“A week before Oliver Tambo and James Chikerema of ZAPU issued the military command ‘To war, comrades’, President Luthuli was killed in Groutville.
The apartheid state covered up the assassination as a train accident. No one in the ANC or the global liberation movement believed that story.
“It was a cold-blooded killing, the beginning of a pattern. Eduardo Mondlane of FRELIMO was assassinated in 1969. Amilcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau followed in 1973.”
Chief Albert Luthuli, born in 1898, was a prominent leader and the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize. His legacy in the fight against apartheid is undeniable. As the Chief of the Zulu tribe in Groutville and a key member of the ANC, Luthuli led various resistance campaigns against apartheid, including the Defiance Campaign of 1952.