NPA reopening inquests into deaths of Albert Luthuli, Griffiths Mxenge
This is a collaborative attempt to have the initial findings of the activists' deaths overturned.
FILE: National Prosecuting Authority offices in Pretoria. Picture: Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has announced it will reopen the inquests into the deaths of anti-apartheid activists Chief Albert Luthuli and Griffiths Mxenge.
This is a collaborative attempt to have the initial findings of the activists' deaths overturned.
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) NPA, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and the National Archives will place two concurrent inquests in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday.
The NPA announced that it would be looking into the deaths of the two activists, whose families were left with no closure.
Luthuli, former African National Congress (ANC) president and Zulu chief, was allegedly run over by a goods train in 1967.
Mxenge, a founding member of Lawyers for Human Rights, faced a brutal end when he was stabbed 45 times in Umlazi, Durban, in 1981.
According to a presiding judge of that time, Chief Luthuli’s case was found to not have any criminal culpability.
In Mxenge’s case, the people who were responsible for his death were granted amnesty.
KZN NPA spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said: "Following the collaboration between the NPA KZN TRC Unit and the NPA TRC Unit at the national office, the DPCI [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation] and the National Archives, the NPA will be presenting evidence before the court in an attempt to have the initial findings into the deaths of Chief Luthuli and Mxenge overturned. The purpose of inquests is to determine how a person died and if anyone should be held responsible for their death."
Ramkisson-Kara also mentioned that this inquest served as a means to address the atrocities of the past.