Doctor 'finished off' murdered anti-apartheid icon Luthuli

ANTI-APARTHEID icon and Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate chief Albert Luthuli died as a result of a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage and concussion of the brain associated with assault. 

That is the conclusion the Pietermaritzburg High Court came to on Thursday, resulting in Judge Nompumelelo Radebe setting aside the 1967 inquest that found that the former ANC president died as a result of being hit by a goods train.

The court found that Luthuli was beaten to death by apartheid police, working in conjunction with employees from the then South African Railway Company.

Judge Radebe also found that a Durban doctor, who travelled to Stanger to attend to the critically injured Luthuli in July 1967, finished him off instead of saving his life. 

Instead of being rushed to King Edward Hospital in Durban after being collected from the scene where he was found unconscious, Luthuli was taken to the poorly resourced Stanger Hospital to be treated for body and head injuries.

With a lack of medical practitioners at Stanger Hospital to attend to the nature of his serious injuries, Luthuli waited for hours with no one coming from Durban to attend to him. 

More than four hours later, a neurosurgeon from King Edward and Wentworth hospitals, Dr Mauritius J. Joubert, arrived at Stanger Hospital.

Judge Radebe was critical of the uncaring actions by Stanger Hospital medical practitioners and Dr Joubert. 

“He (Dr Joubert) came to the Stanger Hospital to finish him off,” said Judge Radebe in isiZulu when she delivered the judgment, saying this was her personal opinion. 

The reopened inquest into the death of the then ANC president-general started in April after the ANC and Luthuli’s family had expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the initial inquest conducted by Magistrate C.I. Boswell at the Stanger Magistrates Court.

Luthuli, who was transported to Stanger Hospital at about 10am, died at 2.25 pm on Friday.

Boswell had concluded that Luthuli’s death was caused by being hit by a goods train and that no one could be blamed. 

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu welcomed the ruling, saying this is a historical judgment which has finally confirmed that Luthuli was brutally beaten to death by the apartheid police.

“It is a moral victory not only for his family but for all martyrs of our struggle whose lives were cut short by the cruelty of apartheid,” said Bhengu.

Cape Times