The death of Chief Albert Luthuli, a revered anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was not a tragic accident but part of a broader campaign of politically motivated assassinations, argued Jeff Radebe, convenor of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, during his testimony at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday.
Radebe appeared at the inquest into Luthuli’s 1967 death — officially ruled at the time as an accident after he was allegedly struck by a train in Groutville, north of Durban. However, suspicions of foul play have persisted for decades, with both Luthuli’s family and the African National Congress (ANC) believing his death may have been a covert assassination by the apartheid regime.
"Chief Luthuli was not feared because he broke the law,” Radebe told the court. “He was feared because he constantly found legal ways to defy an unjust system.”
Radebe described Luthuli’s transformational leadership of the ANC as a turning point in South African liberation politics. “From its conservative roots in 1912 to launching the Defiance Campaign in 1952 and embracing the armed struggle by 1961, Chief Luthuli was central to that evolution,” he said.
The apartheid government, Radebe claimed, viewed Luthuli’s international stature and grassroots influence as intolerable — especially after he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960, becoming the first African to do so. “He was respected across racial lines and maintained resistance despite repeated banning orders.”
Radebe pointed to recently uncovered correspondence between apartheid security agents, suggesting Luthuli remained deeply involved in ANC operations even after the party was banned. “The Special Branch considered him a serious threat. He still held clandestine meetings and discussed sensitive matters with ANC leadership.”
Turning his attention to the original 1967 inquest, Radebe criticised the apartheid-era judiciary, calling it “an extension of state repression.”
“There was no independence. The courts were complicit. A letter from the magistrate who oversaw the inquest, addressed to the Secretary of Justice, proves the process was flawed. It violated the separation of powers and the rule of law,” he argued.
Placing Luthuli’s death in the context of other liberation leaders’ assassinations, Radebe noted the suspicious timing. “Just days before Oliver Tambo and James Chikerema of ZAPU issued the call to arms, Luthuli was killed. This wasn’t isolated — Eduardo Mondlane of FRELIMO died in 1969, and Amilcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau in 1973.”
Radebe maintained that Luthuli’s death fits the pattern of a deliberate and politically driven silencing of revolutionary voices across the continent.
The inquest into the true cause of Chief Albert Luthuli’s death resumes on Wednesday, with more testimony expected in the coming days.