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Chief Albert Luthuli
The KwaZulu-Natal government is paying tribute to the late former African National Congress (ANC) president, Chief Albert Luthuli, during Freedom Day commemorative celebrations.
Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli is expected to lay a wreath on Luthuli’s grave at the Groutville Cemetery in northern Durban.
Officials of parties in the government of provincial unity and Luthuli’s family are expected to join Ntuli.
The laying of the wreath comes after the High Court in Pietermaritzburg started to hear evidence in the reopened inquest into Luthuli’s death.
The initial inquest had suggested a train had hit Luthuli and no foul play was suspected, however, his family and the ANC believe that the apartheid government is responsible.
Ntuli says Luthuli played a pivotal role in South Africa’s struggle towards democracy.
“We are celebrating the 31 years of democracy and iNkosi Albert Luthuli also played a pivotal role in the journey of our struggle, hence the inquest that has been reopened in order to dig deep into the truth about his death which is quite very important to all of us as the people of KZN and of SA so that our history will be written quite correctly. And we are here today so that we also pay respect to those who actually struggled for liberation and our democracy we are talking about, and one of them is iNkosi Albert Luthuli.”
