- NPA to enroll reopening of Biko’s inquest on 12 September 2025, with approval from the Minister of Justice and support from Biko family’s legal representatives.
- Biko allegedly tortured in custody, previous inquest cleared police officers, TRC rejected amnesty applications from involved Special Branch members.
- Reopened inquest aims to determine if Biko’s death involved criminal acts, NPA seeks closure for family and society.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will enroll the reopening of the inquest into Stephen Bantu Biko’s death on 12 September 2025, exactly 48 years after the anti-apartheid icon died following alleged torture by police. This move has been approved by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and is supported by the Biko family’s legal representatives.
Biko’s death in police custody in 1977 remains one of the darkest chapters in South Africa’s history. At just 30 years old, Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, was arrested along with his comrade Peter Jones at a roadblock near Grahamstown (now Makhanda) for breaching banning orders restricting his movements.
Biko was taken to Walmer Police Station in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), where he was reportedly shackled in leg irons, kept naked in a cell, and subjected to harsh interrogation. Medical help was only sought 24 days later, after “foam” was noticed around his mouth. On 11 September 1977, still shackled and unconscious, he was transported 1 200km to a prison hospital in Pretoria, where he died the following day.
Controversy and calls for justice
The official cause of death cited extensive brain injury, acute kidney failure, uremia, and complications from intravascular blood coagulation. The original inquest in November 1977 accepted the police’s explanation that Biko’s injuries resulted from him allegedly banging his head during a scuffle. The magistrate exonerated both the police and the medical staff, and no one was prosecuted for Biko’s death.
Twenty years later, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) heard testimony from five former Special Branch officers, Major Harold Snyman, Captain Daniel Petrus Siebert, Captain Jacobus Johannes Oosthuysen Benecke, Warrant Officer Rubin Marx, and Sergeant Gideon Johannes Nieuwoudt, who applied for amnesty for their involvement.
They claimed Biko attacked a colleague and was injured in the subsequent altercation. The TRC rejected their applications, pointing to contradictory statements, a lack of clear political motive, and evidence of collusion and false affidavits during the original investigation.
A chance for truth and healing
The NPA’s decision to reopen the inquest is intended to establish, in terms of section 16(2)(d) of the Inquests Act 58 of 1959, whether Biko’s death was caused by any act or omission amounting to a criminal offence. This renewed effort aims to address historical injustices and provide closure for the Biko family and the wider South African community.
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