South African court rules Albert Luthuli died from assault, not accident
At the time of his death, Luthuli was the leader of the then-banned ANC and had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Anti-apartheid icon and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Albert Luthuli succumbed to assault, a South African high court ruled on Thursday, overturning the findings of a 1967 inquest that had concluded he died by accident.
Luthuli is the figure after whom Luthuli Avenue in Nairobi’s Central Business District is named.
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Judge Nompumelelo Radebe of the Pietermaritzburg High Court found that Luthuli was beaten to death by apartheid police, working in collaboration with employees of the then South African Railway Company.
As a result, the former African National Congress (ANC) President sustained a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage, and brain concussion consistent with assault.
The judge also found that a Durban doctor who travelled to Stanger to treat the critically injured Luthuli in July 1967 “finished him off” instead of saving his life.
She noted that instead of being rushed to King Edward Hospital in Durban, Luthuli was taken to the poorly equipped Stanger Hospital after being found unconscious.
“With a lack of medical practitioners at Stanger Hospital to attend to the nature of his serious injuries, Luthuli waited for hours with no one coming from Durban to attend to him. More than four hours later, a neurosurgeon from King Edward and Wentworth hospitals, Dr Mauritius Joubert, arrived at Stanger Hospital,” local media reported.
Judge Radebe criticised the conduct of Stanger Hospital staff and Dr Joubert.
“He (Dr Joubert) came to the Stanger Hospital to finish him off,” she said while delivering the judgment, clarifying that this was her personal opinion.
The Luthuli family had long expressed dissatisfaction with the original inquest conducted by Magistrate C.I. Boswell at the Stanger Magistrates Court, prompting a fresh investigation that led to the new findings.
Boswell had concluded that Luthuli’s death was caused by being hit by a goods train while walking along a railway line, and that no one was to blame.
The court heard that Luthuli was transported to Stanger Hospital at around 10:00 am and died at 2:25 pm on a Friday.
At the time of his death, Luthuli was the leader of the then-banned ANC and had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle.
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu welcomed the ruling, calling it a historic judgment that finally confirms Luthuli was brutally beaten to death by apartheid police.
“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,” Bhengu said.
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