South African Court Hears How Duo Cleaned Scene Where Albert Luthuli Died

An induna from KwaDukuza has testified how he and his brother-in-law cleaned up blood believed to be that of anti-apartheid stalwart and ANC leader, Albert Luthuli, from the rail tracks where he is said to have died in 1967.

Court hears how duo cleaned scene where Albert Luthuli died

Albert Luthuli Photo

CAPE TOWN - An induna from KwaDukuza has testified how he and his brother-in-law cleaned up blood believed to be that of anti-apartheid stalwart and African National Congress (ANC) leader, Albert Luthuli, from the rail tracks where he is said to have died in 1967.

Eighty-eight-year-old Elliot Nxumalo told the reopened inquest into Luthuli's death in the Pietermaritzburg High Court that his brother-in-law, who worked in Luthuli's shop, informed him of Luthuli’s death, allegedly from being hit by a train.

Nxumalo told the court the scene had already been cleared by the time they arrived at the railway bridge after work on that day.

Elliot Nxumalo testified that he was not politically inclined and had never spoken to Chief Albert Luthuli because the community of the area, then known as Stanger, believed they could be arrested if they did.

Thirty-one years old at the time, Nxumalo said he had passed by Luthuli's shop where his sister's husband worked after leaving the Gledhow sugar mills where he was employed as a welder.

His brother-in-law, referred to only as Mabaso, informed him that Luthuli had been struck by a train and suggested they go clean the scene.

He said that it only took them a few minutes to reach the rail bridge, which no longer exists.

Nxumalo went on to say that they had drawn water from the nearby Umvoti River and used the cloths they had been carrying to wash the blood off the tracks.

On a photograph of the railway bridge displayed in court, Nxumalo pointed out where the blood splatters were.

He said Luthuli's body had already been removed, there was no train in sight, and no one else was around, when he and Mabaso cleaned the tracks.

The inquest continues.