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TimesLIVE
27-05-2025
- TimesLIVE
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.
TimesLIVE
26-05-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Government regarded Chief Luthuli as a terrorist, says Albertina Luthuli
The reopened inquest into the death of ANC president-general Chief Albert Luthuli heard evidence that the apartheid government regarded Luthuli as a terrorist. This evidence came from his daughter Dr Albertina Nomathuli Luthuli, 93, when testifying in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Monday. Albertina, a medical doctor, said there were many geopolitical events before her father died in 1967. There was condemnation from the apartheid regime in 1960 when her father received the Nobel peace prize. 'The apartheid regime was not happy that my father was given a Nobel peace prize, they even condemned the Nobel peace prize committee saying it has lost its credibility by awarding a prestigious prize to a terrorist,' she said. State prosecutor adv Annah Chuene asked Albertina why her father was regarded as a terrorist. She said many banning orders were meted out against him but he was 'able to evade them'. Albertina also told the court that the apartheid regime was against the move by former US president John F Kennedy while still a senator to visit her father in Groutville in 1961. 'Kennedy visited the apartheid government in Pretoria and he also wanted to visit my father but the government of the day denied [his request]. Kennedy forced his visit to my father which angered the apartheid regime,' she said. Albertina said all these developments made her father enemy number one of the state. 'So the apartheid regime had no choice but to remove my father,' she said. She also disputed evidence presented in the initial inquest in 1967, that Luthuli was partially deaf and blind. Though her father once had an operation in one of his eyes, his vision was clear, she said, adding that he could also hear properly. She said her family strongly believe he was murdered as opposed to having been struck by a train. She added the family hopes the reopened inquest will bring closure on the matter. The inquest continues.
