Luthuli Leads Africans Into Segregated Area

Press, Volume C, Issue 29690, 7 December 1961, Page 17

Luthuli Leads Africans Into Segregated Area

(N .Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 5. Mr Albert Luthuli was prevented from leaving Johannesburg today for Oslo to receive the Nobel Prize, when pressurisation failure forced the 8.0.A.C. Comet taking him to London to turn back. The 62-year-old former Zulu chief had been given a tumultuous farewell by cheering and singing Africans, but his plane was forced to return to Johannesburg half an hour after taking off. It was “the chi“‘"s'’ second delay on his trip—earlier the plane taking him from Durban to Johannesburg had been held up for 45 minutes by a technical hitch. A, Durban, Mr Luthuli did what no other South African non-white has done before, by leading several hundred

non-whites into the “whites only” airport foyer—without official rebuke. Police and airport officials raised no objection as nonwhites swarmed about the building, some standing on benches marked “whites only” to catch a glimpse of the former chief and his wife. But the apartheid barriers were strictly enforced at Johannesburg airport, where the Luthulis were taken straight from the Durban plane to the London-bound Comet. About 1000 Africans nevertheless gave him an enthusiastic farewell. A 8.0.A.C. spokesman said later that it had beer, decided to stay in Johannesburg overnight, but he did not know what arrangements were being made for Mr Luthuli and his wife, who were being held incommunicado, guarded by detectives at the airport.