Forty-eight years after the death of Steve Biko sent shockwaves through South Africa and the world, the country is once again reopening old wounds in the hope of delivering long-awaited justice. On September 12, 2025, precisely 48 years since Biko died in police custody, South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) announced that the inquest into his death would be reopened, with proceedings commencing at the High Court in Gqeberha. This move, as reported by IOL News and the BBC, is part of a broader, nationwide push to revisit a number of unresolved apartheid-era killings—an effort that has gained momentum in 2025.
Steve Biko, the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement and a prominent anti-apartheid activist, was just 30 years old when he died from a brain injury on September 12, 1977. Arrested at a roadblock and detained under a "banning order" that severely restricted his movements, Biko was allegedly tortured by five policemen while in custody. At the time, police claimed he had injured himself by banging his head against a wall. But as the years passed, and especially after the end of apartheid in 1994, former officers admitted to assaulting him. Still, no one was ever prosecuted for his death.
The 1977 inquest into Biko’s death concluded that he died from injuries sustained during a supposed scuffle with officers, and assigned no criminal responsibility. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 1996 to investigate apartheid-era atrocities, heard Biko’s case and even heard admissions from the involved policemen that they had made false statements two decades earlier. Yet, the officers were not prosecuted, and the TRC in 1999 declined to grant them amnesty. According to the NPA, two of the officers implicated in Biko’s death are still alive, now in their 80s.
The reopening of Biko’s inquest is not an isolated event. At least five inquests into the deaths of prominent anti-apartheid activists have either been reopened or resumed across South Africa this year, according to IOL News. Among these are the 1985 murders of the Cradock Four—Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli—whose case resumed at the Gqeberha High Court in June 2025. These men, all activists, were abducted, tortured, and killed by security police after attending a United Democratic Front meeting in Port Elizabeth. Their brutal murders remain etched in the memory of a nation still grappling with its violent past.
Other cases under renewed judicial scrutiny include the deaths of five minors in a 1993 South African Defence Force raid in Mthatha, the 1981 murder of human rights lawyer Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge—who was stabbed 45 times and had his throat slit near Durban—and the reopened inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president general of the African National Congress. Luthuli’s inquest began in April 2025 in Pietermaritzburg and is set to continue with closing arguments in October.
For the families of victims, these reopened inquests are more than legal proceedings—they are vital steps toward closure and accountability. Nkosinathi Biko, Steve Biko’s son, expressed confidence that the new inquest would finally lead to the prosecution of those responsible for his father’s death. “It’s very clear in our minds as to what happened and how they killed Steve Biko,” he told the BBC following the first hearing. “What 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’s murder was an act, orchestrated and executed by those who were with him—the five policemen who are implicated in this case.”
He added, “Accountability for our violent, brutal past is something that has evaded South African society. You cannot have the trauma that we had, the flow of blood in the streets orchestrated by a state against a people, and then you emerge with less than a handful of prosecutions ever being successfully made.” For Nkosinathi and many others, the inquests are not just about individual cases—they are about the soul of the nation. “You can’t give root to a democracy without dealing with some of the historical issues decisively,” he said.
The NPA echoed this sentiment in a public statement, noting, “The NPA and its partners will continue their efforts to address the atrocities of the past and assist in providing closure to the Biko family and society at large.” The agency’s renewed focus comes as President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year established a judicial commission to investigate whether there had been political interference in the investigation or prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. This decision was prompted by complaints from victims’ families who felt that justice had been systematically delayed or denied.
Three decades after the end of white minority rule, South Africa is still coming to terms with the unresolved crimes of apartheid. The TRC uncovered harrowing stories of murder, torture, and state-sponsored violence, but few cases ever resulted in trials or convictions. Many families, including the Bikos, have continued to pressure the government for justice, arguing that the country cannot truly move forward without reckoning with its past. As Nkosinathi Biko put it, “Families who felt let down by the lack of prosecutions that had been recommended by the TRC had continued to pressure the government for justice.”
The reopened inquest into Steve Biko’s death has been adjourned until November 12, 2025, for case management in the High Court of South Africa, Eastern Cape Division. Similarly, the other revived inquests are expected to continue into the coming months, with the hope that they will finally bring answers—and perhaps accountability—to the families who have waited for decades.
Steve Biko’s legacy endures not just in courtrooms, but in the hearts and minds of South Africans. His famous words—“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”—remain a rallying cry for justice and dignity. As the country revisits these dark chapters, the world watches to see if South Africa can finally deliver the justice that has eluded so many for so long.
