(10 Sep 1995) TYPE: English/Nat
For the first time in 18 years, the widow and family of Black People's Convention leader, Steve Biko visited the cell were he died in detention in Pretoria South Africa.
The charismatic activist was found dead in a prison cell in Pretoria on September 12 1977 after he'd been mortally wounded and then driven naked from Port Elizabeth to the capital, Pretoria.
A march by about 500 people through the capital Pretoria Sunday, comes almost 18 years to the day that activist Steve Biko died in custody in a prison cell.
Leading the march which was arranged by the Azanian People's Organization, was Biko's widow Nontsikelelo Biko and her two sons, Nkosinathi and Samora.
The group sang as they made their way to the Pretoria Local Prison, an institution that remains as an icon of Apartheid.
Although Black organisations may hold different political views, all agree with AZAPO that Steve Biko is a symbol of the African struggle.
He is remembered as a man who inspired and advocated black self-reliance in the struggle against apartheid.
As the Biko family made their way into the prison cell for the first time since his death, they prayed for the man who died in 1977.
They remembered how on September 12 1977, his naked and badly beaten body was driven from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria some 700 miles (1,100 kms) away.
He was left to die in a cell.
In fact the cell, was only recently identified by a former prisoner, who gave Biko his last meal which he was unable to eat.
An inquest into his death found no one responsible.
At the time of his death South Africa's then Minister of Police, Jimmy Kruger said of his death: "It leaves me cold."
On Sunday, an emotional Nontsikelelo Biko laid a wreath of flowers on the cell floor.
She hopes the cell will become a shrine to her husband, knowing that his death is one of the most notorious cases of apartheid brutality.
Outside and the group sang the once banned anthem, now a symbol of the new South Africa.
No one was ever convicted of killing Biko, though an inquest shortly after his death concluded he had probably received fatal head injuries while being questioned by police.
Many police officers are expected to go before a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission being set up to pardon those who confess
to politically motivated crimes.
Arriving at Johannesburg airport before the march, Mrs. Biko said her husband's killers should be tried.
SOUND BITE:
"I've always wanted to see them, you know, brought to justice, to court and be charged properly and sentenced properly."
SUPER CAPTION: Ntsiki Biko
The Biko family is opposed to President Nelson Mandela's government's proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission designed to redress crimes of the past.
They feel that in many cases the perpetrators will go free.
SOUND BITE:
"But one would like to see the record set straight. I would like my children to know what happened to their grandfather and their children and so forth. And under blanket amnesty facts don't come
out."
SUPER CAPTION: Nkosinathi Biko, Steve Biko's son
But police chiefs of the New South Africa say that although the solutions to apartheid crimes are far from perfect, attitudes have changed.
SOUNDBITE:
"The single most important changing area should be that of
attitude and the South African police have accepted that challenge
and it is evidenced in for example the South African Police Museum
in Pretoria where we now have an exhibition on the life of Steve
Biko.."
SUPER CAPTION: Police Captain Wikus Weber
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