Albert Luthuli’s daughter-in-law details the trauma of the day he died

Inkosi Albert Luthuli’s daughter-in-law on Tuesday provided details of the Struggle icon's state in 1967 when he had been brought to Stanger Hospital with a gash to his head. 

Wilhelmina May Luthuli, 77, said she was 20 years old when she saw her husband's father lying in a room with a deep head injury, which was not bandaged. 

For decades the original inquest had maintained that Luthuli, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died after being hit by a goods train on July 21, 1967, in Stanger, on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, but his family has maintained that he was murdered by the Apartheid State. 

Wilhelmina May Luthuli on Tuesday gave testimony at the National Prosecuting Authority-led inquest into the death of Luthuli in Stanger. The hearings started at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday. 

She said that the report of the original inquest held in 1967, shortly after Luthuli's death, was a cover-up to protect the apartheid government-connected killers.

She said that on that fateful morning, Luthuli woke up to follow his normal daily routine, which was to walk three kilometers to open the family's Nonhlevu General Dealer shop, proceed to his three plots of sugarcane fields, and return to close the shop before going back home. 

She said she was busy with her domestic duties when she received news that her father-in-law had been gravely hurt. 

“I was alone (at home), I couldn't understand when the person told me that he (Inkosi Luthuli) had been injured and was in hospital, my mother-in-law was not at home,” she said. 

She said she quickly took her three-month-old son, Mthunzi and rushed to the hospital. 

“At an outpatient (department), I was directed to a room where he was being attended to. 

“Within minutes, my brother-in-law arrived, and my sister-in-law Thandeka also arrived,” she said. 

She said they waited until the afternoon to be allowed to see Luthuli. 

“When we were allowed in, he looked like he was in good health except for a deep wound on the middle of his head.

“The wound was not bandaged, and it was left open,” she said. 

She said Luthuli could recognise the members of his family and tried to mumble something to them.

“It was painful to watch him struggling (to speak), he was trying hard to say something but couldn't. 

“His one arm was limp, there was not much blood,” she said. 

She said a pastor arrived before he “quietly slipped away from us”. 

The court also heard that there were news reports that Luthuli had committed suicide, but Wilhelmina May said that was not true. 

“I am aware that the newspapers portrayed false news to the world, that he was in poor health at the time of his death. 

“As a person who lived with him, these were lies. 

“One can hardly expect a person in poor health, with poor eyesight to navigate his way through kilometers of vegetation, catch a bus, and go about his normal duties,” she said. 

She said during the 1967 inquest to determine Luthuli’s unnatural death, Magistrate CI Boswell, who presided over the inquiry, agreed that he appeared to have been struck with a heavy iron on his head. 

She said her mother-in-law Nokukhanya would never have allowed her husband to go to work if he was in poor health.

She said Luthuli’s funeral was attended by people of all races, including those from outside the country. 

“The church where his funeral service was held was too small, as thousands of people attended. 

“I recall (internationally-acclaimed writer) Alan Paton remarking in his speech that they had taken his chieftaincy, but you remained a chief.

“He said Luthuli had the voice of a lion,” said Wilhelmina May.

She also described how Luthuli was often harassed by members of the police special branch, some of whom were also present at the funeral. 

“Whether he was alive or dead, they never missed a chance to harass him. 

“Early in my life, I learned the hard way that the special branch could come in at any time. I would wake to find a car parked near the home. Police, black and white, would be seated inside the vehicle, just watching our home.

“If we had a visitor at home, a few minutes later, a special branch police vehicle would be parked outside,” said Wilhelmina May. 

Cape Times