The death of former African National Congress (ANC) President-General and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Chief Albert Luthuli, did not deter the party’s leadership from pressing ahead with the struggle for liberation. That’s according to ANC Convenor in KwaZulu-Natal, Jeff Radebe, who continued his testimony at the reopened inquest into Luthuli’s death, held at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

The inquest seeks to uncover the true circumstances surrounding Luthuli’s death in July 1967, which was officially reported as the result of being struck by a goods train.

Radebe has concluded his testimony before the Pietermaritzburg High Court. He was testifying on behalf of the ANC before the reopened inquest into Luthuli’s death.

Radebe, who took the stand on Tuesday, believes that the apartheid government assassinated Luthuli to silence him because of his ability to influence different groups of society.

Radebe says the then ANC Deputy President Oliver Tambo took over the baton after Luthuli’s assassination without fear.

“One of the major lessons in my view is that even though Chief Albert Luthuli was one of our greatest leaders of the African National Congress but the ANC always believed in collective leadership. They kill one leader other leaders emerge to ensure that the struggle continues. When they killed Chief Albert Luthuli they thought the leadership of the ANC is destroyed but another great leader Oliver Thabo took the baton moving forward, as the Roman say ‘the king is dead, long live the king’ truly was one of our greatest leaders that the ANC has ever seen is the one who brought about the new modern ANC.”

The ANC describes its late president as a defiant leader who continued holding meetings despite being banned by the apartheid government. Evidence leader Advocate Anne Chuene cross-examined Radebe about Luthuli’s behaviour while he was banned.

“Chief Luthuli continues to outsmart the then government, he could not be restrained, you could not be controlled, they put restrictive measures, but they were failing to control him and restrict him, would you agree with that? I agree fully that is why even the term “AMADELAKUFA” were started during the presidency of president Albert Luthuli, the spirit of no surrender, that’s why even in 1952 he made a very prophetic statement that shows his defiant mood, that bans or no bans the struggle must continue, civil obedience are the order of the day, he was defiant till the end.”

Meanwhile, a new witness, Thulani Thusi, took the stand. Thusi, who is a heritage educator at the Luthuli Museum, presented images of a tour he took with the team of investigators in the reopened inquest.

He says the aim was to retrace Luthuli’s steps and to discover how he really died. For the past 57 years, the ANC and the Luthuli family have been disputing this version.

“My lady I explained that I was fortunate to find this site, which is an old bridge, I refer to it as an an old bridge because when they started to see this bridge and I had to compare it with the image of the bridge of the bridge that speak about the death of chief Albert Luthuli, so this is a bridge which is in Gledo at eNkukhwini area, My Lady this is the old bridge, so this bridge I presented to the Task Team that I was taking them through to the route When we arrived we were able to see this bridge as similar to the one of 1967 which related to Chief Albert Luthuli where the accident happened in 1967.”

The inquest continues. The grandson of the late Inkosi Albert Luthuli, Albert Luthuli Junior, is expected to continue with his testimony on Thursday.

He testified in court last week however, he did not conclude his testimony.

VIDEO | Inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli – 23 April 2025: