Former ANC President General Chief Albert Luthuli’s grandson, Sandile said that the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling that he was beaten to death by the apartheid police and did not die because he was hit by the goods train, has vindicated their six decades long held view that he did not commit suicide as it was reported by the police.
Thursday’s judgment set aside the finding of the 1967 inquest on the matter.
Judge Nompumelelo Hadebe, handed down the judgment on Thursday following the reopening of the inquest into Luthuli’s death.
Speaking on YOUFM Newshour, the Luthuli family spokesperson and grandson to Chief Luthuli, Sandile, said that the judgment was a bittersweet moment for his two surviving and elderly daughters.
“This is a start to correcting the historical distortion and more importantly that it is a start to the healing process of the family who have carried this burden and hardship with them.
In this regard I must pay regard to the two surviving daughters of Chief Luthuli and our grandmother uMabhengu who are 93 and 91 years old respectively and today is an exceptionally bittersweet moment for them,” said Sandile.
Furthermore, he said that they have long known that Chief Luthuli was murdered, and that he did not commit suicide as it was alleged by the evil apartheid government of the time.
“Indeed it is the view that we have held for the past six decades, not only just as the family but also as the community of Groutville, as his organisation the African National Congress (ANC) and the people that he worked with throughout his entire life, including the clergy, the traditional leadership and other eminent organisations that he belonged to.
We were never in doubt about the fact that the story about him being hit by a goods train was a fabrication created by the apartheid government of the time and perpetuated over decades of time,” explained Sandile.
Meanwhile, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu also told YOUFM Newshour that they welcome the court ruling.
“Luthuli was a unifier and a visionary who led the ANC during the Defiance Campaign, the drafting of the Freedom Charter, and the banning of the ANC,” said Bhengu.
She said the ruling brought justice, truth and dignity to Luthuli’s memory and to all those who suffered under apartheid brutality.
Furthermore, Bhengu stated that the judgment reaffirmed what the party, the liberation movement, and the oppressed people of South Africa had always known; that Luthuli was a victim of state-sanctioned murder.
“It is a moral victory not only for his family but for all martyrs of our struggle whose lives were cut short by the cruelty of apartheid,” remarked the spokesperson.
Luthuli was the first African recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his non-violent resistance against apartheid.
The ANC has also commended the efforts of all those who fought tirelessly to reopen this inquest; historians, human rights lawyers, the Luthuli family, and the Department of Justice, for their pursuit of truth and accountability, emphasizing that the ruling restores historical integrity and strengthens the country’s collective memory.
