The reopened inquest into the death of human rights lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge, has been adjourned to June 17 in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal.
This is to allow members of the security police in the 1980s who are named in the case to obtain legal representation.
Evidence leader, Adv. Siyabonga Ngcobo has told Judge Pieter Bezuidenhout that the former Vlakplaas commander, Dirk Coetzee and Joe Mamasela are among these witnesses.
Coetzee told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that Mxenge was brutally murdered before his car was set alight near the Oshoek border post to eSwatini in 1981.
Mxenge’s daughter says she and her family will only be able to heal once the truth about her father’s murder comes to light.
She and other relatives were in the public gallery, together with African National Congress (ANC) leaders, during the brief proceedings.
[IN PICTURES] The ANC was at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal this morning for the re-opening of the inquests into the tragic and suspicious deaths of Chief Albert Luthuli and Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge.
We stand firmly with the families of our fallen heroes and… pic.twitter.com/QNenAJu5Qo
— ANC – African National Congress (@MYANC) April 14, 2025
Nomadidi Mxenge-Makhanya was only eight years old when her father was killed. Her mother, Victoria, kept the law practice going until she was gunned down in 1985.
‘Family was never the same’
Mxenge-Makhanya says her family was never the same after her father’s death. “Yes, we are grateful that the truth is going to come out. It is going to open up wounds, but I think it is best that it comes out. We will heal when we know the truth. We will heal when justice is done.”
“It is painful to know that people who did these things to both our parents never paid, they were never taken to court. That one is more painful than to listen to what actually happened, than to listen to the person who said this must be done,” Mxenge-Makhanya explains.
She says her father was her hero as a child. “Tata was a legend. Tata was a hero … was a loving person, full of love. That’s my memory. I was 8 years old when he passed on, but as a child, that’s the memory I have of him. He loved everybody. Umlaza used to be full. People used to come . . . Ja, he was a loving man, he was a loving man. May his soul rest in peace.”
VIDEO Inquest into the death of Griffiths Mxenge:
Chief Albert Luthuli
The Luthuli family says they are happy, though anxious at the same time, that the chapter of what led to the mysterious death of their father, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former ANC president, Chief Albert Luthuli, begins to unfold.
The inquest into Luthuli’s death is being heard at the Pietermaritzburg High Court today.
This long-awaited inquest comes after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) announced the re-opening of the inquest into his death, with new evidence expected to dominate the proceedings.
Luthuli was allegedly killed in a train crash in 1967, a version of events that his family has long disputed.
His grandson, Sandile, is among those attending the proceedings.
He says, “It has been 67 years in the making. So, one can imagine particularly for the two surviving daughters who are 93 and 90 years old respectively, that more than half of their life, they have lived not knowing exactly what happened to their father, but also, you know of high anxiety for us in the sense that we look forward for the next 30 days as the inquest unfolds and what the NPA is able to reveal in so far as this matter is concerned.”
LIVE STREAM | Inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli:
