Judgment expected in reopened inquest into Albert Luthuli’s death

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg is set to deliver its judgment on the reopened inquest into the death of former African National Congress (ANC) president-general Chief Albert Luthuli on Thursday.

Luthuli died in 1967, with the apartheid government initially ruling his death as an accident, saying he was hit by a goods train while crossing the railway line in KwaDukuza, east of KZN.

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However, in April, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) successfully reopened the inquest into his death, saying that new evidence had emerged showing he may have been murdered.

A number of people who knew Luthuli while he was alive to his death have testified during the reopened inquest into his death.

They said that while Luthuli was of advanced age at 69, it’s unlikely he would not have heard a loud steam train hurtling towards him.

A forensic pathologist, who re-examined Luthuli’s postmortem results, testified that his results were not consistent with those of someone being hit by a train.

Luthuli’s grandson, Sandile, previously told EWN that the matter has weighed heavily on the family for 50 years.

"We hope that this process will actually unravel what happened and set the historical record straight and secondly, to the extent that anyone can be found culpable for this, that really would bring [us] closure."

A Hawks detective tasked with re-investigating Luthuli’s death has testified that he could not track down some key witnesseswho were present on the day of Luthuli’s death. This includes the train driver, conductor and the firefighter who first responded to the scene.

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