On September 12, 1977, Bantu Stephen Biko died alone on a mat in a prison cell in Pretoria. He was 30. His death was no unexplained tragedy. It followed detention, interrogation, assault, medical neglect and an approximately 1 200km journey from Gqeberha to Pretoria while he was naked, injured and shackled.
Biko had been arrested near Makhanda on August 18, 1977 and detained under apartheid security legislation. During interrogation by security police in Port Elizabeth, he sustained a devastating brain injury. His condition deteriorated, yet he did not receive treatment. Instead, the state transported him across the country. He died shortly after reaching Pretoria.
The apartheid government initially portrayed his death as the result of a hunger strike. When that version became unsustainable, security police claimed Biko had injured himself during a struggle. The original inquest accepted the police version and found no offence had been proved against anyone.
No one was prosecuted.
That finding was part of the crime. Apartheid police investigated themselves, doctors failed in their duties, officials withheld the truth and an apartheid court converted identifiable human actions into a death for which nobody could supposedly be held responsible.
This is why the reopened inquest matters. The official record remains contaminated by a process conducted under the authority of the same state whose agents detained, assaulted and neglected Biko. Democratic South Africa cannot continue relying on an apartheid-era verdict to explain his death.
Forty-nine years have made the task harder. Witnesses have died, memories have faded and records have reportedly disappeared. Delay has not been neutral. It has reduced the possibility of prosecution and allowed people with knowledge to avoid accountability.
But delay does not make the truth irrelevant. It makes establishing it more urgent.
Five former security policemen applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty over Biko’s death. Their accounts were conflicting and inadequate. Amnesty was refused. Yet no effective prosecution followed.
The democratic state inherited evidence of a grave crime and an obligation to investigate, yet justice remained deferred.
Azapo, with members of the Biko, Mxenge and Ribeiro families, challenged the amnesty provisions of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act in the Constitutional Court. The court upheld the negotiated settlement but amnesty was conditional. Those who did not apply, failed to tell the full truth or were refused amnesty remained liable to prosecution.
Reconciliation was never intended to become blanket indemnity for apartheid criminals. That is where democratic South Africa failed.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission referred hundreds of cases for investigation.
For years, many went nowhere. Families lived with the contradiction of a constitutional order founded on human dignity while murders of relatives remained unpunished. The reopening of apartheid-era inquests is welcome but also an admission that too much time was lost when evidence was fresher and more perpetrators were alive.
The reopened inquest cannot return Biko to his family or restore decades in which justice was denied. It can tell the truth with the authority of a democratic court and reject the fiction that he simply died in detention without anyone being responsible.
Justice delayed has protected too many perpetrators. It must not now become justice permanently denied.
• Rakwena is the secretary for legal and constitutional affairs of Azapo.
- Bantu Stephen Biko died on September 12, 1977, in a Pretoria prison cell after being detained, interrogated, assaulted, and medically neglected by apartheid security police.
- Following his arrest on August 18, 1977, Biko sustained a brain injury during interrogation and was transported approximately 1,200km naked, injured, and shackled without receiving medical care before dying shortly after arriving in Pretoria.
- The apartheid government initially claimed Biko died from a hunger strike or self-inflicted injury, and the original inquest accepted this version, resulting in no prosecutions.
- Five former security policemen applied for amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission over Biko’s death, but their conflicting accounts led to refusal of amnesty and no effective prosecution followed.
- The reopened inquest aims to establish the truth with democratic court authority, challenging the apartheid-era verdict that shielded perpetrators from accountability and acknowledging the ongoing failure to deliver justice.
On
Biko had been arrested near
No one was prosecuted.
Forty-nine years have made the task harder. Witnesses have died, memories have faded and records have reportedly disappeared. Delay has not been neutral. It has reduced the possibility of prosecution and allowed people with knowledge to avoid accountability.
But delay does not make the truth irrelevant. It makes establishing it more urgent.
Five former security policemen applied to the
Azapo, with members of the Biko,
Reconciliation was never intended to become blanket indemnity for apartheid criminals.
For years, many went nowhere. Families lived with the contradiction of a constitutional order founded on human dignity while murders of relatives remained unpunished.
Justice delayed has protected too many perpetrators. It must not now become justice permanently denied.
• Rakwena is the secretary for legal and constitutional affairs of Azapo.
