African National Congress (ANC) KwaZulu-Natal convenor Jeff Radebe says the party has long believed that political assassinations were behind the deaths of struggle icon Chief Albert Luthuli and human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge.
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday, Radebe said the upcoming inquests into their deaths would reveal the truth.
“From the very beginning, the ANC never believed that this was the goods train accident here in Groutville,” Radebe said, referring to the 1967 death of Luthuli.
His remarks come as the Pietermaritzburg High Court prepares to hear inquiries into the deaths of Luthuli and Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge – two prominent figures in the anti-apartheid struggle.
The hearings followed recommendations by the National Director of Public Prosecutions and were approved by the Minister of Justice under Section 17A(1) of the Inquests Act 58 of 1959.
Mxenge, born in 1935, was a vocal opponent of apartheid and a respected lawyer.
His legal career was initially delayed after his 1966 imprisonment for alleged involvement with the ANC.
After his release in 1969, he completed his law degree and was admitted as an attorney in 1974.
He opened a legal practice and defended political activists, including ANC members.
In 1981, Mxenge was brutally murdered in Umlazi, Durban.
Although a confession identifying his killers was made in 1997, the case was later closed after the perpetrators received amnesty through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Radebe linked Luthuli’s death to a decision by the ANC and Zimbabwe’s ZAPU to deploy armed forces into then-Rhodesia in 1967 as part of the struggle against apartheid.
“A week before the assassination of Luthuli, their commander in chief at that time of the uMkhonto weSizwe, President (Oliver) Tambo, together with the vice president of Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), took a decision to deploy soldiers of the uMkhonto weSizwe and ZIPRA forces into the then-Rhodesia in order to fight their way into South Africa,” Radebe said.
“And for that decision, the regime took a decision to eliminate Luthuli, who was at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid. As uMkhonto weSizwe was formed in 1961, the president at that time was Luthuli, and the first detachment of uMkhonto weSizwe was in1962, and was called the Luthuli Detachment,” he added.
When asked about the Mxenge family’s reaction to the reopening of the inquest, Radebe reflected on his personal connection to them.
“Well, I knew Griffiths Mxenge, together with his wife, as a young article clerk here in Durban in the 1970s under Archie Gumede. We used to interact with Mr Mxenge,” he said.
“Even his son-in-law is one of our diplomats at Foreign Affairs, and his daughter-in-law works in the Presidency as part of the top officials. So this is an ANC family. Eventually the truth will be revealed: what actually happened on that fateful day in 1981, when he was brutally massacred in Umlazi, not far from here.”
Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, born in 1898, was the first African recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and a central figure in the fight against apartheid.
As the chief of the Zulu tribe in Groutville and a senior ANC member, he led various resistance campaigns, including the Defiance Campaign of 1952.
The apartheid regime later stripped him of his chieftaincy and placed him under house arrest.
He died in 1967, reportedly after being struck by a goods train near KwaDukuza.
An inquest later that year ruled out foul play, but the case has now been reopened following the emergence of new evidence.
Politics
