Wilhemina Luthuli says her father-in-law, Albert Luthuli, was not frail when he died

JOHANNESBURG - The daughter-in-law of the late African National Congress (ANC) struggle stalwart, Chief Albert Luthuli, has disputed reports that he was old and frail at the time of his death.

Wilhemina Luthuli has taken the witness stand at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, where the reopened inquest into Luthuli’s death is underway.

Luthuli died at the age of 69, with the apartheid government saying he was knocked down by a steam train in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal.

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Wilhemina, who married Luthuli’s son, was the last person to see him alive.

She says a false narrative was created by the government and media at the time to paint Luthuli as an old, confused man who stepped in front of an oncoming train.

“I’m aware that the newspapers at the time falsely portrayed to the world that he was in poor health at the time of his death. As a person who lived with him, I knew these were lies. One can hardly expect a person in poor health, with poor eyesight (and is) deaf to navigate his way through kilometres of vegetation, catch a bus and go about his business.”

LAST MOMENTS OF LUTHULI DESCRIBED AS PAINFUL

The 21 July 1967 started off as a normal day at the Luthuli household in Stanger, east of KwaZulu-Natal. 

Luthuli, as he usually did, woke up in the early hours of the morning to go open his shop.

She says the next time she saw him; he was lying on a hospital bed with a deep wound on top of his head

“The wound was not bandaged. It was open. He was trying to speak; it was painful to watch him struggle to speak. He was really trying hard to say something but could not.”

Wilhemina’s testimony will continue on Wednesday.