A South African court has reopened the inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the most revered figures in the fight against apartheid. His death in 1967 was officially ruled accidental, but decades of doubt and unresolved questions have prompted a renewed judicial probe.
The original inquest, conducted in 1967, concluded that Luthuli was walking along a railway track when he was struck by a train, resulting in a fatal skull fracture. However, both his family and anti-apartheid campaigners have long challenged this version of events.
At the time of his death, Luthuli was president of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC) and had gained international acclaim in 1960 when he became South Africa’s first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in the struggle against apartheid. The ANC would go on to lead South Africa into democracy in 1994.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has now committed to presenting new evidence before the court. It said the aim was to “have the initial findings into the deaths of Chief Luthuli… overturned,” although it has not disclosed the nature of the evidence.
In a statement last week, the NPA highlighted that the earlier inquiry “found that there was no evidence which disclosed any criminal culpability on the part of any of the employees of the South African Railways or anyone else”.
However, suspicions have long lingered that Luthuli was murdered by apartheid authorities and that a cover-up followed.
His grandson, Sandile Luthuli, told the BBC that the initial inquiry was a “whitewash meant to cover up the activities of the [former] apartheid government”. He added: “We look forward to an independent judiciary that will preside over this matter and [make] independent findings on exactly what transpired on that fateful day in July 1967.”
Sandile further praised the NPA for its handling of the case and acknowledged the consistent engagement with the family since prosecutors first received the case in the early 2000s.
As for the family’s expectations during the month-long hearing, he explained they were hoping for closure on two critical fronts—understanding how Luthuli truly died and identifying those responsible.
“Hopefully, through this inquest, we will be able to find both. If not, maybe the first one, being exactly the opportunity to correct the historical record and really debunk this myth of him being hit by a train,” he said.
Another family member, Albert Mthunzi Luthuli, echoed these sentiments in an interview with IOL, stating the family welcomed the re-opening of the inquest, despite the long passage of time.
“Many people that we suspected of being involved in my grandfather’s murder” are now deceased, he said. “We believe the TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] let many families of victims down by giving amnesty to apartheid murderers,” he added, referencing the post-apartheid process that granted amnesty to individuals who made full confessions of politically motivated crimes.
At the time of his death, Luthuli had been confined to his home area in Groutville (now part of KwaZulu-Natal province) and was barred from political activity.
His Nobel Peace Prize win in 1960 was the first of four awarded to South Africans: Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the honour in 1984, while Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk jointly received it in 1993.
The Luthuli matter is one of two prominent inquests that resumed on Monday. The other involves Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge, a lawyer and fellow anti-apartheid activist, who was brutally murdered in 1981. His inquest, however, was postponed to 17 June after a brief court session.
Mxenge was found dead with 45 stab wounds and his throat slit. A 1982 inquest failed to identify the perpetrators. It wasn’t until 1991 that his killers were named—after Butana Almond Nofemela confessed to the murder of Mxenge and seven other ANC members.
Nofemela was part of a covert apartheid hit squad tasked with detaining and killing anti-apartheid activists. Alongside commander Dirk Coetzee and David Tshikalange, he was convicted in 1997 but granted amnesty by the TRC before the criminal case concluded.
The justice ministry explained last year that the Mxenge inquest was being reopened because new evidence had emerged, indicating that “certain critical information” had not been presented to the TRC.
In South Africa, inquests are used to establish the cause of death and determine whether any individual should be held responsible.
