A South African court ruled Thursday that the 1967 death of ANC leader Albert Luthuli was due to “assault” by apartheid policemen, overturning a finding that he was struck by a train.
A formal inquest by the apartheid government claimed in 1967 that Luthuli — who in 1960 became the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize — had died after being hit by a goods train.
South Africa’s government this year reopened inquests into the deaths of several political activists in the struggle against the white-minority apartheid regime, which was removed in 1994.
“It is found that the deceased died as a result of a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage and concussion of the brain associated with an assault,” Judge Nompumelelo Hadebe ruled.
The judge said Luthuli’s death was attributable to “assault by members of the security special branch of the South African police, acting in consent and in common purpose with employees of the South African Railway Company”.
She set aside the findings of the 1967 inquest and named seven men, whose whereabouts could “not be ascertained”, as having committed or being complicit in the murder.
They included a locomotive driver, a fireman, a station master and two railway police officers.
Luthuli served as president-general of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1952 until his death and led the anti-apartheid movement during one of its most challenging periods, including its banning by the apartheid government.
