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Chief Albert Luthuli and Griffiths Mxenge’s family attend the re-opening of the inquests into their deaths at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal on April 14, 2025.
A witness in the inquest into the death of ANC leader Inkosi Albert Luthuli has asked that the Hawks also investigate the disappearance of her relative shortly after Luthuli’s death.
The 68-year-old National Archive Chairperson Sibongile Mnyandu-Nzimande is the cousin of a boy who allegedly saw Luthuli being assaulted by a group of white men on the day of his death in 1967.
The first inquest found that Luthuli was accidentally hit by a goods train.
Mnyandu-Nzimande corroborated the evidence of Isaiah Mdletshe that her father, Barnabas Mnyandu, also told her of the disappearance of his elder brother Phothwayo Mnyandu.
Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Nompumelelo Radebe asked Mnyandu-Nzimande what Phothwayo told the family about what he saw: “Your elder uncle reported when he came back home that he saw Chief Albert Luthuli being assaulted by a group of white men and that a shovel was used. Did they elaborate on that? What kind of shovel was this and did he relate as to where on his body was, he was being assaulted?”
Mnyandu-Nzimande replied: “I would be lying, Your Honour. I have no idea. But he said he was being assaulted by a group of white men and one of them was having a shovel.”
Inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli | 04 June 2025
