Contrary eyewitness accounts revealed at Luthuli inquest

An inquest into the controversial death of ANC president-general chief Albert Luthuli in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Friday heard there was contradictory accounts by two eyewitnesses of the incident. 

Dr Jabulani Mzaliya, who is a preacher and former presidential adviser, told the court affidavits submitted by men who claimed to have witnessed the incident were inconsistent.

Mzaliya, who has penned two books on Luthuli's life, said there were glaring inconsistencies in the affidavits which raised questions about their credibility.

The affidavits show there was a two-minute window between when the train driver said he hit Luthuli and when he logged the call to the hospital.

“10.38 and 10.40 — so many things have happened which do not correlate with the two minutes. The first one is that the train had to stop first, because a train does not have a sudden stop. So from 10.38, a certain time was taken away by the train before it stopped. Second, the train guard had to find out from the driver why the train had stopped, which took more minutes.” he said.

Mzaliya's research included going through affidavits from the 1967 inquest into Luthuli’s death.

He said from what he gathered, the initial inquest conducted by former Stanger magistrate C. I Boswell revealed many crucial witnesses were not called to give evidence.

He alleged the initial inquest was done to serve a certain agenda.

Another witness who also took the stand on Friday, Brian Xaba, a director at the Luthuli museum, also told the court they have provided investigators with sufficient material about the life and death of Luthuli.

He said some of the files from their museum might be used in the inquest.

The inquest continues.

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