Inconsistencies in affidavits submitted by men who allegedly witnessed Luthuli’s death - researcher

JOHANNESBURG - Researcher Dr Jabulani Mzaliya said there were glaring inconsistencies in the affidavits submitted by the men who allegedly witnessed the death of African National Congress (ANC) stalwart, Chief Albert Luthuli.

Mzaliya is currently testifying at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, which is hearing the reopened inquest into Luthuli’s death.

Luthuli died in 1967, with an inquest at the time ruling that his death was accidental, saying he was hit by a steam train.

Mzaliya is a researcher who has written two books on the life of Luthuli.

Part of his research has also included going through the affidavits from the 1967 inquest into Luthuli’s death.

Mzaliya said the affidavits show that there was a two-minute window between when the train driver said he hit Luthuli and when he logged the call to the hospital.

"10:38 and 10:40 - so many things have happened which do not correlate with the two minutes. The first one is that the train had to stop first, because a train does not have a sudden stop, so from 10:38, a certain time was taken away by the train before it stopped. Secondly, the train guard had to find out from the driver why the train had stopped. That took some more minutes."

The inquest continues.