The two surviving men convicted of the 1981 murder of anti-apartheid lawyer Griffiths Mxenge have asked the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) to fund their legal defense.

The request was revealed on Monday during the reopening of the inquest into Mxenge’s death at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg.

Mxenge, who was a prominent human rights lawyer and ANC member, was murdered in Umlazi, Durban, in 1981.

He was stabbed 45 times by three apartheid-era police officers.

Butana Nofemela, David Tshikalange, and Dirk Coetzee were found guilty of Mxenge’s killing 28 years ago.

However, they were later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The court heard on Monday that Coetzee has since died, while Nofemela and Tshikalange are retired.

Both men have now requested the SAPS to cover their legal costs because they were employed by the police at the time of the murder.

“They are entitled to legal representation and have already requested to be represented,” the presiding judge said.

“The appointment of the legal representative is in process as it appears that these were members of the South African Police Service at the relevant time.”

The matter was postponed to June 17, pending the SAPS decision.

Meanwhile, the inquest into the death of Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli was also heard on Monday.

Luthuli, born in 1898, was the first African recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and a towering figure in the anti-apartheid struggle.

He served as chief of the Zulu tribe in Groutville and was a senior member of the African National Congress (ANC), leading major resistance efforts including the Defiance Campaign of 1952.

The apartheid regime stripped Luthuli of his chieftaincy and placed him under house arrest.

He died in 1967 after reportedly being struck by a goods train near KwaDukuza.

A 1967 inquest ruled out foul play, but the case has now been reopened after the emergence of new evidence.

Earlier, IOL News reported that African National Congress (ANC) KwaZulu-Natal convenor Jeff Radebe said the party has long believed that political assassinations were behind the deaths of struggle icon Chief Albert Luthuli and human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge.

Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday, Radebe said the upcoming inquests into their deaths would reveal the truth

“From the very beginning, the ANC never believed that this was the goods train accident here in Groutville,” Radebe said, referring to the 1967 death of Luthuli.

Radebe linked Luthuli’s death to a decision by the ANC and Zimbabwe’s ZAPU to deploy armed forces into then-Rhodesia in 1967 as part of the struggle against apartheid.

“A week before the assassination of Luthuli, their commander in chief at that time of the uMkhonto weSizwe, President (Oliver) Tambo, together with the vice president of Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), took a decision to deploy soldiers of the uMkhonto weSizwe and ZIPRA forces into the then-Rhodesia in order to fight their way into South Africa.”

“And for that decision, the regime took a decision to eliminate Luthuli, who was at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid. As uMkhonto weSizwe was formed in 1961, the president at that time was Luthuli, and the first detachment of uMkhonto weSizwe was in1962, and was called the Luthuli Detachment,” he added.

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za

IOL News