Luthuli had a hideout beneath his home, daughter tells inquest
The reopened inquest into the death of ANC president-general chief Albert Luthuli heard evidence he had a hideout underneath his Groutville home.
Luthuli used this secret place to hide from members of the apartheid police unit's special branch.
This evidence came from his daughter Dr Albertina Luthuli, 93, during the second day of her testifying in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Wednesday.
She told the court the hideout was also used to keep his important documents.
'Members of the special branch would just come and search the house, not knowing that there is a secret place underneath it,' she said.
Albertina said the members would come to their home almost every night during supper.
'They would come, ransack the house, they would go even to my father's bedroom and turn his bed upside-down,' she said, adding that the members of the special branch would not tell the family what they were looking for.
Albertina told the court her mother Nokukhanya Luthuli always thought her husband would be killed one day.
'One day, my mother told baba (my father) that it would be easy for his enemies to kill him because they knew his day-to-day routine,' she said.
Her father would wake up, do his chores, go to his shop, then the sugar cane fields and then go back to his house.
'Even my father was aware one day he would be killed, but as a deep Christian he was not afraid to die, especially for the cause of liberating people,' she said.
Albertina said due to safety concerns her mother tasked a Mr Mabaso, who worked for her father on his farm, to act as his bodyguard.
Prosecutor Adv Annah Chuene asked Albertina if Mabaso was with her father on July 21 1967, the day he died.
Albertina said she was not sure, but from her understanding he was supposed to be with him.
The initial inquest conducted in 1967 concluded Luthuli died after he was struck by a goods train, a claim his family is disputing.
The inquest continues on Wednesday.
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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ She said she was never told about the name of her kidnapped uncle, although her father said his parents and siblings loved him. The former head of the Department of Arts and Culture said her father, Phothwayo Barnabus Mnyandu, had succeeded her grandfather, Thomas Mnyandu, to be traditional leader at La Mercy on the north coast. 'My father lived and died with a heavy heart from the disappearance of his brother at the hands of the police.' She said years before his death, his father, Mnyandu, who was the last born among Thomas's children, told the family about the disappearance of his brother, which also left her grandfather heartbroken until his death. Mnyandu-Nzimande said she was told that there was no case opened about her uncle's disappearance, and it was seldom talked about as the family feared that should they do that, they would face police brutality. 'It was a deep, cutting feeling of helplessness and despair as the family feared losing more lives at the hands of the police. 'This may also be because at the time, which was in the 1960s, the police were seen as a symbol of authority who could do no wrong in upholding the law in its purest form. 'When the police had committed a wrong, even as deep as killing a relative, the fear of consequences (when reporting it) was palpable.' She said it was when she was an adult and working that her father shared with her the story of how her uncle disappeared. The story started with her uncle delivering a letter from her grandfather to Luthuli using a bicycle. She said before being taken away by the police, the uncle told the family that on his arrival at Luthuli's home, he was told that Luthuli was working at his sugarcane field. As he proceeded to the fields, he witnessed a group of white men assaulting Luthuli with a shovel near a goods steam train that was stationed on a bridge. She said her father told her that her uncle reported that after witnessing the attack on Luthuli, he fled on realising that the assailants had seen him and reported to her grandfather what he witnessed. 'The word soon spread that the police were looking for him, and he was advised to go into hiding, though I believe the effort was not well planned. 'Hiding completely was nearly impossible because the community was scarcely populated and everyone knew one another, and the possession of a bicycle at the time was a glaring fact, and people would have known who had a bicycle,' said Mnyandu-Nzimande. She said a few days later, some community members told the family that they had seen the police walking with her uncle toward the Tongaat Police Station. 'Even today, he had never been found nor did the police ever come back to report what happened to him despite my grandfather being induna and well known in the area,' she said. She said she was not certain of the date of her grandfather's death, but her father died at the age of 94 in 2018.
