Oliver Tambo: Neither Do We
The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled that the death of African National Congress (ANC) President-General, Chief Albert Luthuli, was a murder, overturning the decades-old finding that it was an accident.
On 22 July 1967, following a memorial service held for the late President-General of the African National Congress (ANC), Inkosi Albert Luthuli, in Lusaka, ANC leader, Oliver Tambo, was interviewed by a reporter of the Zambia Mail newspaper. Tambo maintained that there was some “mystery” surrounding the death of Inkosi Luthuli, as it was reported that he was struck by a goods train, the day before, on 21 July 1967.
It was “a train which no African driver was permitted to drive,” noted Tambo bitterly. “His widow does not accept that he was struck by a train. Neither do we.”
Tambo praised Inkosi Albert Luthuli as a great fighter who died fighting for the rights of his people. He then mentioned that he had been phoning Stanger since 21 July, after getting the news of Luthuli’s passing on, without receiving any reply.
According to Tambo, the apartheid government was responsible for his death; and Luthuli’s passing would go down in history because immediately after his burial, the ANC’s army would invade Rhodesia and South Africa.
The judgment was delivered on Thursday, 30 October 2025, following closing arguments heard two weeks earlier. The inquest was reopened in April 2025 by the National Pr
