{"id":93907,"date":"2025-09-13T08:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T08:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93907"},"modified":"2025-09-13T08:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T08:32:00","slug":"anti-apartheid-heros-new-inquest-should-lead-to-justice-biko-family-tells-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93907","title":{"rendered":"Anti-apartheid hero\u2019s new inquest should lead to justice, Biko family tells BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 52 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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A son of prominent South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko has told the BBC the family is confident a new inquest into his death 48 years ago will lead to the prosecution of those responsible.<\/p>\n

Seen as a martyr in the struggle against white-minority rule, the Black Consciousness Movement founder died from a brain injury aged 30, almost a month after being arrested at a roadblock.<\/p>\n

Police at the time said he had banged his head against a wall, but after apartheid ended in 1994, former officers admitted to assaulting him \u2013 although no one has been prosecuted.<\/p>\n

Nkosinathi Biko, who was six when his father died, said the country could not move forward without addressing its violent past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear in our minds as to what happened and how they killed Steve Biko,\u201d he told the BBC after the first hearing was held at the High Court in the southern city of Gqeberha \u2013 on the 48th anniversary of his father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

It is alleged that Biko, who had been subject to a \u201cbanning order\u201d that restricted his movements and other activities at the time of his arrest in 1977, was tortured by five policemen while in detention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is required from this process is simply to follow the facts, and we have no doubt that a democratic court, in a democratic state, will find that Steve Biko\u2019s murder was an act, orchestrated and executed by those who were with him \u2013 the five policemen who are implicated in this case,\u201d his son said.<\/p>\n