Former ANC Treasurer-General Dr Zweli Mkhize is optimistic that the National Prosecuting Authority's inquest into the deaths of prominent party figures, former ANC President Inkosi Albert Luthuli and Griffiths Mxenge, will correct the distortion of what happened to them.
Luthuli died on July 21, 1967, in what was believed to be an accident as it was reported that he was run over by a goods train in Stanger, on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal.
Mxenge was a prominent Durban lawyer who died after he was stabbed multiple times on November 19, 1981, in Umlazi, south of Durban.
“We believe this will give the truth of what happened after the death of so many of our leaders.
“We hope that the families would find closure once the information is made available, but we also believe that this is important for the history to be properly recorded,” he said.
The former KwaZulu-Natal Premier said the death of many political activists remained a mystery as the apartheid government “was the master of deception by assassinating and creating a narrative on might have happened to that individual”.
“As for Chief Albert Luthuli, nobody believed the story of the accident from the start; there was something sinister about it.
“But we did not have facts, there was no proper investigation and therefore at this point we hope that this will give us a whole new sense of what happened,” he said.
Mkhize, said the death of Mxenge was unfortunate and tragic.
He said the truth started coming out from notorious Vlakplaas assassin Joe Mamasela.
“That was the only time that we found out that there was an assassination camp that had been created next to Piet Retief.
“There are many, many more people whose lives that we cannot account for,” said Mkhize.
He said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission did what it could, but after it had finished its work, there should have been further investigation to confirm the veracity of information that was placed before it.
“(There was also a need for a) follow up where there were cases that were not properly closed,” said Mkhize.