The Convenor of the African National Congress’ (ANC) Provincial Task Team in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Jeff Radebe, has objected to a letter written by then Magistrate CI Boswell in 1967 to the Secretary of Justice, just a week before he was to preside over an inquest into the death of former party President Chief Albert Luthuli.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court is currently hearing the re-opened inquest into Luthuli’s death.

The court heard that, in his letter, Boswell tried to prevent the initial inquest from ever being heard in court.

For the past 57 years, the ANC and the Luthuli family have been disputing that he was struck by a goods train at Groutville, on KZN’s North Coast.

They believe that he was murdered by the apartheid government to silence him.

During his testimony on behalf of the former ruling party at the inquest, Radebe spoke about Boswell’s conduct.

He says, “Being a presiding officer, who is in charge of an inquest to pre-judge the matter is actually to destroy the rule of law. So in other words, my two grounds of objecting to this letter is on the basis of the separation of powers and also of subverting the cause of justice.”

Radebe says, “My conclusion is that reading from this letter is that there was no separation between presiding officers, especially Magistrate and the Department of Justice, in other words the Magistrates were an extension of the Department of Justice and as a result part of the state machinery to ensure the subjugation of the oppressed people.”

He says he is optimistic that justice will prevail once the re-opened inquest into Luthuli’s death has been concluded.

Radebe says, “So happily today, we live in a constitutional democracy where the basic law of the land is the Constitution and any law or conduct that is contrary to the Constitution would be struck down as unconstitutional.”

LIVE STREAM: Inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli: