South Africa Reopens Inquest into Steve Biko’s Death: Seeking Truth About Iconic Anti-Apartheid Activist’s Brutal Torture and Murder

In September 1977, Steve Biko, a prominent Black Consciousness Movement leader in South Africa, passed away under controversial circumstances while in police custody. On Friday, marking the 48th anniversary of his death, the South African government reopened an inquest into this case, aiming to uncover the truth surrounding Biko’s demise and offer closure to his family and the broader society.

Biko was arrested for breaching a ban on his movements in the Eastern Cape province and held in Port Elizabeth prison (now Gqeberha). After 24 days of detention, medical attention was sought only when foam was observed around his mouth. During this period, he was kept naked and shackled in leg irons in room 619.

On the fateful day of September 12, 1977, Biko was transported, still unconscious and shackled, to a prison hospital in Pretoria, approximately 1,200 kilometers away. He succumbed to his injuries outside a Pretoria hospital at the age of 30. The cause of death was recorded as extensive brain injury and acute kidney failure.

At the initial inquest in 1977, Biko’s interrogators from the infamous apartheid special police branch testified that he had injured himself by hitting his head against a wall. This testimony reportedly elicited whistles and gasps from black spectators.

Thirty years later, during South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997, officials involved maintained that Biko had attacked one of them with a chair after he sat down without permission. They claimed that in the ensuing scuffle to restrain him, Biko hit his head against the wall.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and authorized by President Nelson Mandela, was established as a court-like body offering amnesty to those who testified. While it is internationally recognized as a model of restorative justice, local debates have since arisen over whether justice may have been compromised in favor of reconciliation.

Now, South Africans eagerly await the truth about Biko’s brutal treatment and suspected murder. This renewed investigation follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s April inquiry into allegations that his predecessors in the African National Congress party hindered prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes.

Another high-profile case currently under review is the Cradock Four, a group of anti-apartheid activists who were abducted and murdered by security forces in 1989. To this day, no one has been brought to justice for their killings.