Luthuli investigator: Key records missing
An investigator says old records could not be traced through official channels when he began looking into Chief Albert Luthuli's case.
He was speaking at the Pietermaritzburg High Court, where the inquest into the death of the anti-apartheid activist reopened yesterday.
The initial inquest, during apartheid decades ago, concluded that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was hit by a goods train in Groutville in 1967.
He was the ANC's president-general at the time of his death.
According to the official, attempts were made to find the original police docket and inquest records from 1967 - the year Chief Luthuli died.
He told the court that he visited the Kwadukuza Police Station and the magistrate’s court where the apartheid-era inquest was held but no documents could be found.
Eventually, it was Luthuli's family who assisted him.
They downloaded a copy of the record from the Chief Albert Luthuli Museum archives.
But the investigating officer says what he discovered next raised more questions. Pieces of evidence were missing.
“Exhibit E. It's a rough sketch of accident scene. There was no diagram attached. Exhibit G [has] four photos [of the] Umvoti River Railway Bridge. Also, there was no photos attached. Exhibit J was a newspaper, a clipping of a train on a bridge. There was no clipping attached,” said the officer.
State prosecutors told the court they believe the original investigators may have worked together to cover up the true cause of Luthuli’s death.
They plan to call a medical expert who is expected to testify that Luthuli's injuries were not consistent with being hit by a train.
Senior ANC officials and Luthuli's family will return to the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday for day two of proceedings which are scheduled to continue until 16 May.
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