Court Overturns Luthuli's Death Ruling: A Landmark Decision in South Africa

Fri Oct 31 2025 17:29:09 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

A South African court has ruled the death of Nobel laureate Albert Luthuli as a homicide linked to apartheid police, challenging decades of assumed accident narratives.

In a groundbreaking ruling, a South African court has attributed the death of anti-apartheid leader Albert Luthuli to an assault by apartheid-era police, overturning prior claims of accidental death. The decision, welcomed by Luthuli's family and civil rights activists, is part of ongoing efforts to seek justice for apartheid victims.

A South African court has ruled that Nobel laureate Albert Luthuli's 1967 death was the result of an assault by apartheid police, overturning decades of claims that it was an accident.

An inquest held under the apartheid government concluded that Luthuli, the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died after being struck by a freight train while walking along a railway line.

But activists and his family had long cast doubt on the findings, and South Africa's government reopened the case this year.

A judge on Thursday ruled that the anti-apartheid hero died as a result of a fractured skull and a cerebral haemorrhage associated with an assault. His family has welcomed the judgement.

Luthuli, who at the time of his death was the leader of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for spearheading the fight against apartheid.

The ANC went on to lead the struggle against white-minority rule and came to power in 1994, following the first democratic elections.

Delivering the judgment on Thursday, Judge Nompumelelo Radebe stated that the evidence presented did not support the 1967 inquest findings. It is found that the deceased died as a result of a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage, and concussion of the brain associated with an assault, she ruled.

The judge directly attributed Luthuli's death to the assault by members of the security special branch of the South African police, acting in concert and in common purpose with employees of the South African Railway Company.

After the judgment was read out, the Luthuli family's spokesperson called it the first part of finally getting justice. ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu also welcomed the court's decision, stating it corrected a long-standing distortion of history.

The case marks a significant moment in South Africa's ongoing quest for justice regarding apartheid-era crimes.