Albert Luthuli’s daughter testifies at inquest
The fresh inquest into the 1967 death of Albert Luthuli is continuing in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
The apartheid government initially concluded that the struggle stalwart and Nobel Peace Prize laureate died after being struck by a train in Groutville.
On Monday, his daughter, Albertina Luthuli, testified about what she believes happened to her father.
A prosecutor read out her statement.
" We are convinced as a family that when he was holding on the rail, an instrument was used by someone in the train to hit him on the back of the head. And as he struggles to survive the hit, he held onto the rail and would've twisted his hands and wrist, and perhaps even the lower arms, causing damage to those parts, the loss of blood would result in him becoming faint and finally falling on the pedestrian steel plate.
Albertina Luthuli,93, who qualified and practised as a medical doctor, said she went to the scene herself.
READ: Crime expert questions eyewitness in Luthuli inquest
" I expected to find a lot of blood spread all over the place. What I expected to find at the scene when somebody had been hit by a train was simply not there. I could not reconcile the scene with my father's so-called accident."
Luthuli said they believe the apartheid government wanted to silence her father after he won the Nobel Peace Prize and was visited by US Senator Robert Kennedy.
" Though Baba did not seem particularly concerned regarding the activities of the special branch, my mother was. She was concerned about their frequent activity amounting to harassment by the state security apparatus. She was also concerned and stated it in no uncertain terms that one day he may disappear with no trace.
"He was always a man of routine to the letter. It is unthinkable to imagine him behaving in a careless manner that would hurt the family he loved so much."
The inquest is continuing in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
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