Durban – The commemoration of the 45th death anniversary of struggle stalwart Steve Biko was not enough to show families of apartheid-era victims that the state was pursuing those who carried out killings on behalf of the Apartheid machinery.
Stephen Bantu Biko died in police custody on September 12 in Pretoria Central Prison 45 years ago.
Imtiaz Cajee, who pursued a private prosecution that eventually saw the state overturn the original inquest into the death of his uncle, Ahmed Timol, said simply commemorating Biko and others meant that there was no justice and truth.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, writing in his weekly newsletter on Monday, said Biko was denied human dignity, which was the principle at the heart of his black consciousness activism.
”In the words of the family lawyer Sir Sydney Kentridge, his was a miserable and lonely death on a mat on a stone floor in a prison cell,” Ramaphosa wrote.
“It remains a source of great sorrow all these years later to recall that Steve Biko was just 30 years old when he died. He was cut down in his prime by those who feared the power and resonance of his ideas of self-liberation and his efforts to infuse black men and women with pride and dignity.
He never got to see in his lifetime what he called ‘the glittering prize’, the realisation of true humanity.
Writing about this ideal, he famously said: “In time, we shall be in a position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible – a more human face.”
Ramaphosa said that in 1977, a heartless regime killed one of our country’s most promising leaders by depriving him of the food, water and medical treatment he urgently needed as a result of brutal beatings by the apartheid police.
The Truth and Reconciliation Committee did not grant amnesty to the apartheid-era policemen accused of killing Biko and instead said that an investigation was needed to find out what exactly happened.
Cajee said it was pointless only to celebrate heroes and not to find out what exactly transpired in their final moments.
“What is the point of commemorating people and leaving those who were responsible free from having to account? What is the point of having a court reverse the inquest and not pursuing the matter.”
Cajee said the state was not seeking the truth and justice. “The perpetrators are dying. Former president FW de Klerk said there was an agreement between the apartheid government and the incoming government not to pursue these issues, and it seems that any attempt to seek justice enters the territory of this deal.”
“We don’t pursue the perpetrators and the informers, and we don’t ask who was complicit in the arrest, detention and deaths. Those are the questions people are walking away from.”
The NPA has been asked to comment. This story will be updated when they respond.
