The inquests into the deaths of Chief Albert Luthuli and lawyer Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge began in the Pietermaritzburg High Court this Monday, 14 April. The two activists were killed during Apartheid and their families have long sought clarity and closure on their deaths
Inquest to re-examine deaths of Luthuli and Mxenge
The court will re-examine the circumstances around the deaths of the two anti-Apartheid activists. An inquest by the Apartheid government in 1967 found that Albert Luthuli was killed by a train when he was crossing a railway. However, his family and fellow activists have always questioned the reliability of this finding.
At the time of his death, Chief Albert Luthuli was president of the banned African National Congress (ANC). He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his anti-Apartheid activism.
Meanwhile, lawyer Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge was assassinated in 1981. He was found dead in Umlazi, south of Durban, with his throat slit and 45 stab wounds. Nine years later, Butana Almond Nofemela, a covert hit-squad operator, confessed to the killing of Mxenge. In 1997, Nofemela, as well as David Tshikalange and Dirk Coetzee, were found guilty of Mxenge’s murder.
However, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) granted the three amnesty before the Durban High Court could sentence them and that trial was discontinued.
Mxenge was a member of the Release Mandela Committee and Lawyers for Human Rights, and regularly represented members of the ANC in legal matters.
NPA wants to ‘overturn’ the initial findings into Albert Luthuli and Mxenge deaths
According to Times LIVE, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said: “After the collaboration between the NPA KwaZulu-Natal TRC unit and the NPA TRC unit at the national office, the [Hawks] and the National Archives, the NPA will present evidence before the court in an attempt to have the initial findings into the deaths of Luthuli and Mxenge overturned.”
Chief Albert Luthuli’s family ‘relieved’ by new inquest
“We are relieved,” Sandile Luthuli, the grandson of Chief Albert Luthuli, told SABC News outside the courtroom on Monday. Two of Luthuli’s surviving daughters are in their nineties and looking forward to getting closure in their lifetimes. Luthuli expressed confidence in the work that the NPA has done to collect new evidence.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told SABC News that the party found the new inquest “heartening”. She said she believed that the Luthuli and Mxenge families would receive closure from the new inquest.
Will Chief Albert Luthuli and Mxenge’s families receive answers?
Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211.
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