Joseph “Mkhuthuzi” Mdluli Brutally Murdered

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 political activities, Mdluli was arrested in 1966 and was subsequently sentenced to one year and three months imprisonment. Upon his release in 1968, he was banned for two years. Despite this, Mdluli never got tired of serving and fighting for the oppressed people.

Between November and December 1975, the security police arrested several members of the ANC’s underground in the Natal midlands. After obtaining information on the Durban network, they added Mdluli as a co-conspirator and moved to arrest him. In the Greater Durban area, the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) operated through the underground machinery led by Joseph Mkhuthuzi Mdluli and other trade unionists being Raymond Nkosi and Osborne Mthunya, who originally came from Empangeni.

Late at night, on 18 March 1976, members of the Special Branch took Mdluli from his home. The following day he was reported dead. It was at the trial of his comrades, the ‘Pietermaritzburg Ten’ trial that the significant role played by Mdluli in the struggle against apartheid became known. It was alleged that he attended meetings of the ANC in Durban and had paid for the transportation of a number of young militants to Swaziland. This was part of a detailed plan to overthrow the government by bringing in trained guerrillas into South Africa through the coast and forming them into a sabotage force. He was also alleged to have incited people in Lamontville to undergo military training outside South Africa.

A post-mortem examination was held two days after his death, from which a private pathologist engaged by the family was excluded. The family lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge, demanded that a second post-mortem be undertaken. This was refused. On 24 March 1976, Mxenge himself was detained. On 12 April, the Minister of Justice denied that there was any attempt to cover up the death of Mdluli. Then on 13 May, the ANC released photographs of MdIuli’s corpse at a press conference in London and charged that he had been tortured to death.

In an unprecedented move on 11 June, following international protest and through the family’s relentless efforts, the Minister of Justice announced that four Security Branch policemen were to be charged with the culpable homicide of Mdluli. The four security policemen that were charged with culpable homicide included Colonel A.R.C. Taylor, Captain Frederick Van Zyl, Detective Sergeant Mandlakayise Patrick Makhanya and Detective Sergeant Zabulon Ngobese. During their trial they claimed that Mdluli had tried to escape and had fallen over a chair.

A pathologist, Dr. van Straaten, presented evidence disputing the police version. When Dr. van Straaten conducted the post-mortem, he found numerous injuries, which could not be accounted for by a single fall on top of a chair. He found that there had been more than one application of force to the area of the neck on which the fatal injuries appeared. Professor I. Gordon, the chief state pathologist in Durban, corroborated Dr. van Straaten’s evidence. He examined the body on 22 March 1976 at the request of Dr. van Straaten, who pointed out his findings.

They decided to change the description of the cause of death from strangulation to “the application of force to the neck”. He confirmed all the injuries and said, “it seems that the application of blunt force took place at separate times and not in continuity” (SAHO). All four accused were acquitted on 25 October 1976, the fifth day of the trial. The presiding judge said there was insufficient evidence to connect them directly to the death. The court ruled that Mdluli had committed suicide. His wife, Lydia Mdluli, sued the Minister and the four policemen for R30 000. In 1979 the widow of Mdluli was paid R15 000 by the Minister of Police in an out of court settlement.

The horrific tale of Joseph Mdluli is an example the power of the judiciary system during the apartheid years, and the essential role that the courts played in upholding the bigoted law of the land.

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
South African History Archive (SAHA).
Lucas Dladla, “Heroes of our Revolution: Joseph Mdluli (1925 – 1976)”, Dawn: Official Journal of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Vol. 7 No. 4, 1983.
Jabulani Sithole and Sifiso Ndlovu, “The Revival of the Labour Movement, 1970 – 1980”, In Sadet, “The Road to Democracy in South Africa”, Volume 2, Zebra, 2004.
A.N.C. Khumalo, “Death of a Militant: a vow for Joseph ‘Mkhuthuzi’ Mdluli”, Sechaba, Vol. 10, Third Quarter, 1976.

Castro Khwela
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