The African National Congress welcomed a KwaZulu-Natal High Court ruling in Pietermaritzburg that found former ANC President General Chief Albert Luthuli was beaten to death by apartheid police in 1967, not killed by a train. In a judgment dated Oct. 30, 2025, Judge Nompumelelo Hadebe set aside the 1967 inquest and held that security branch officers, acting with South African Railway Company staff, murdered Luthuli and staged the scene. The National Prosecuting Authority reopened the inquest in April 2025. Deputy President Paul Mashatile praised the decision and urged a full search for the truth.
The court cited expert findings that Luthuli’s injuries matched severe blunt force trauma, not a rail impact, along with testimony from family members, activists, and investigators who said the scene appeared staged. Hadebe named train driver Stephanus Albertus Lategan, fireman Daniel Greyling, conductor Pieter van Wyk, and detective sergeant Charles Barend Petrus Lewis, but said prosecutions are not possible because the men are dead or untraceable. She called for an inquiry into the disappearance of witness Mbhemu Myandu. The ANC said the ruling restores the historical record and honors Luthuli’s legacy as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and advocate of nonviolence.
The court cited expert findings that Luthuli’s injuries matched severe blunt force trauma, not a rail impact, along with testimony from family members, activists, and investigators who said the scene appeared staged. Hadebe named train driver Stephanus Albertus Lategan, fireman Daniel Greyling, conductor Pieter van Wyk, and detective sergeant Charles Barend Petrus Lewis, but said prosecutions are not possible because the men are dead or untraceable. She called for an inquiry into the disappearance of witness Mbhemu Myandu. The ANC said the ruling restores the historical record and honors Luthuli’s legacy as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and advocate of nonviolence.
