A landmark revelation has emerged in South Africa: a court has ruled that anti-apartheid hero Albert Luthuli was deliberately killed by apartheid-era police officers, challenging the long-held official narrative that he died in a train accident nearly six decades ago.
The judge dismissed the findings of the original 1967 investigation and identified seven individuals, including railway employees and officers from the special police branch as responsible or involved in the killing. Their current whereabouts are unknown.
This ruling, delivered 58 years after his death, validates what Luthuli’s family has insisted for years: that the apartheid government eliminated one of its strongest opponents.
Luthuli, who served as president of the African National Congress from 1952 until his death, had been restricted under apartheid laws and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961 for his unwavering commitment to non-violent resistance.
The ANC welcomed the judgment, calling it “a correction of a long-standing distortion of history” and “a moral victory not only for Luthuli’s family but for all the martyrs who fought against apartheid.”
