Joseph “Mkhuthuzi” Mdluli Brutally Murdered
On 19 March 1976, the apartheid government admitted responsibility for the death of the African National Congress (ANC) member, Joseph “Mkhuthuzi” Mdluli, who was around 50-years old at the time, and agreed to pay damages to his family. A claim for loss of support by Mdluli’s widow against the minister of justice and police was settled out of court. She received the amount of R28 616.
Mdluli died on 19 March 1976 of an injury to his neck while being detained in Durban security headquarters. His death occurred just a day after his arrest in connection with the 1976 Harry Gwala treason trial. In a poem titled, “Death of a Militant: a vow for Joseph ‘Mkhuthuzi’ Mdluli”, A.N.C. Khumalo defined Mdluli as “a broad, powerfully-made man, hard and tough as the baked earth, burning with love for his country” (Sechaba, Vol. 10, Third Quarter, 1976).
Joseph Masobila Mdluli was born in 1925 in lngwavuma, Northern Natal, the only son in the family. He grew up looking after his father’s cattle and goats. As a young boy, he was very adept at stick-fighting, often emerging triumphant in these fights with friends. Mdluli earned his living as a hawker. In this way he experienced a great feeling of independence because he was a man who liked being on his own.
He joined the ANC in 1952, the year of the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, inspired by the heroism of the volunteers who defied arrest. As a result of
