Pretoria: The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has announced that it will enroll the reopening of the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist and Black Consciousness Movement founder and leader, Stephen ‘Steve’ Bantu Biko, on Friday. The announcement was made by the prosecutorial body on the social media platform X.
According to South African Government News Agency, the reopening of the inquest follows the approval by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Minister of the National Director of Public Prosecutions’ request, which was supported by the legal representatives of the Biko family. Biko was murdered while in apartheid police custody 48 years ago following his arrest at a roadblock.
Biko was detained along with his comrade, Peter Jones, at a roadblock near Grahamstown (now Makhanda) on 18 August 1977 for violating his banning orders that restricted his movements to King Williamstown (now Qonce). He was taken to Walmer Police Station in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), where he was allegedly tortured while shackled with leg irons and kept naked in a cell. Medical assistance was only sought for him after 24 days in custody when ‘foam’ was observed around his mouth.
On 11 September 1977, Biko, unconscious, naked, and shackled, was transported in a police Land Rover to a prison hospital in Pretoria, a distance of 1,200 kilometers. He died outside the Pretoria hospital on 12 September 1977 at the age of 30. The death was declared to have resulted from extensive brain damage, acute kidney failure, and uremia.
An inquest was initially opened that same year, with members of the notorious police Special Branch (SB) claiming that Biko sustained his injuries by banging his head against a wall. Chief Magistrate MJ Prins accepted this version and found that Biko sustained the injuries during a scuffle with SB members. The magistrate also exonerated the medical practitioners who treated Biko in prison. On 02 February 1978, the then Attorney General of the Eastern Cape declined to prosecute anyone for Biko’s death.
During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) sitting in 1997, former senior SB officers from Gqeberha, including Major Harold Snyman, Capt. Daniel Petrus Siebert, Capt. Jacobus Johannes Oosthuysen Benecke, W/O Rubin Marx, and Sergeant Gideon Johannes Nieuwoudt, applied for amnesty in relation to Biko’s death.