HISTORICAL ARTICLES
PUBLISHED BY SUBRY GOVENDER IN THE DURBAN DAILY NEWS SOON AFTER STEVE BIKO'S
BRUTAL DEATH 45 YEARS AGO ON SEPTEMBER 12 1977 AND ARTICLES THEREAFTER
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS TRUST OF SA NEWS AGENCY FROM 1981
STEVE BIKO – 45
YEARS SINCE SEPTEMBER 12 1977 WHEN HE DIED IN A PRETORIA POLICE HOSPITAL AFTER
BEING BRUTALLY TORTURED BY THE APARTHEID SECURITY POLICE
On September 12 (2022) it will be 45
years since South Africa’s black consciousness leader, Steven Bantu Biko, was
murdered by the then apartheid security police. During this time, I was
working at the Daily News, situated at that time at 85 Field Street (now Joe
Slovo street) in the port city of Durban in South Africa. Biko’s gruesome death
evoked shock and anger and I followed the aftermath of his murder very
intensely. These were some of my articles published in the Daily News since
September 13 1977:
DETAINED BLACK
LEADER DIES IN HOSPITAL
The article I wrote on September 13
1977 was published under the headline: “Detained black leader dies in
hospital”.The article read: “Mr Steve Biko, one of the founder members of the
Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, died in a Pretoria hospital last
night after being transferred from Port Elizabeth where he was being held under
Section 6 of the Terrorism Act.General G L Prinsloo, Commissioner of Police,
confirmed today that Mr Biko (30) died in detention in hospital.Mr Biko’s
sister, Mrs A B Mvovo, told the Daily News from King William’s Town that the
security police visited Mr Biko’s home early today and told his 57-year-old
mother of his death.She said the security police did not give any details of
how Mr Biko had died.The security police told her mother, she said, that Mr
Biko had been transferred to Pretoria from Port Elizabeth last week after
falling ill.Married with two children, Mr Biko was regarded as one of the
founder members of the black consciousness movement in South Africa.He was also
the founder president of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) and
honorary president of the Black Peoples’ Convention. At the time of
his SASO presidency his colleagues were Mr Saths Cooper and Mr Strini Moodley,
two black consciousness leaders who are now in prison on Robben Island.Mr
Biko’s wife, Ntsikie, is a nurse at the All Saints Hospital in the Transkei.”
Ends – Sept 13 1977
STEVE TOO STRONG TO DIE OF HUNGER, SAYS WIFE
Then on September 14 1977, I wrote
and got published another article after I spoke to his wife, Mrs Ntsikie Biko,
by telephone from Durban.
The article was published under the
headline: “Steve too strong to die of hunger, says wife”.
This was the article: Mrs Ntsikie
Biko, wife of black consciousness leader Mr Steve Biko, who died while in
security police custody on Monday, said today that she could not believe her
husband could have died after going on hunger strike. A shaken Mrs Biko said:
“My husband was a strong man and I cannot believe that a man like him could
have died after going on hunger strike.”
Speaking from her home in King
William’s Town, Mrs Biko said that her husband was in very good health when he
was taken into security police custody on August 18. Mrs Biko, a nurse at the
All Saints Hospital at Engcobo in the Transkei, said that her ageing
mother-in-law and the rest of the Biko family also could not understand how a
strong and healthy person like Mr Biko could have died of hunger so soon.
“But everybody is now accepting that
Steve is no longer with us.
“During a struggle you can’t expect
everything to be smooth and rosy. My husband has died for a noble cause and I
don’t think the police are going to gain anything,” she said. She said that the
security police had not told her or the Biko family that Mr Biko had gone on
hunger strike on September 5 and that he had been transferred to Pretoria.
“Even if they couldn’t get hold of me
they could have got in touch with Steve’s mother.”
Mrs Biko dismissed police statements
that she had been separated from Mr Biko. She said the only reason she had to
go to work in the Transkei was because she could not get suitable work in King
William’s Town where her husband was restricted.
She said Mr Biko’s funeral would take
place at the Leightonville Location in King William’s Town on September 25.
Funeral arrangements were being made by the Black Peoples’ Convention.
Meanwhile, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi of
KwaZulu, said in Durban yesterday that Mr Biko’s death was tragic because it was
people of Mr Biko’s depth and tolerance that were most needed by South Africa
in this her hour of need.
“I think his death is a challenge to
all of us black people to show by our individual input to the struggle for
liberation that he did not die in vain.”
The executive of the South African
Students Organisation said that Mr Biko’s loss “is a big blow to us all but we
will continue the fight that he stood for.” Ends – September 14 1977
BIKO WAS DEDICATED ‘FREEDOM FIGHTER’
The same day on September 14 1977 I spoke to the president of the Black Peoples’
Convention (BPC), Hlaku Rachidi; Mr A K Mahomedy, a Muslim leader in Durban;
and Mr M J Naidoo, president of the Natal Indian Congress, about the death of
Biko in police custody.
The story was published the next day (Sept 15 1977) under the headline:
“Biko was dedicated ‘freedom fighter’.”
The article read:
Black consciousness leader, Mr Steve Biko, was a dedicated “freedom
fighter” who wanted nothing else but the restitution of the dignity of the
black man in South Africa, Mr Hlaku Rachidi, president of the Black Peoples’
Convention, said yesterday.
Mr Biko (30), who died while in security police custody in Pretoria on
Monday, was the honorary president of the BPC.
Commenting on his death, Mr Rachidi said the Black Consciousness leader
was dedicated to the liberation of the black people and, therefore, would not
have indulged in any cowardly action that would delay the realisation of the
total liberation of South Africa.
“The death of Mr Biko in detention, like many others, is a picture of
the violent police state that is South Africa.
“We vow to continue from where they were forced to leave off and to
carry on the struggle,” he said.
Imam A K Mahomedy, a prominent Muslim leader and priest, said that South
Africa’s entire Muslim community mourned the death of Mr Biko.
“We deeply sympathise with his family in the moment of crisis.”
Mr M J Naidoo, president of the Natal Indian Congress, said that one
more articulate black leader had died under suspicious circumstances while in
detention. Ends – Sept 15 1977
BIKO WAS A TRUE CHRISTIAN, SERVICE
TOLD
On September 20 1977 a memorial
service was held at the Emmanuel Catholic Cathedral in central Durban to
protest against the death of Mr Biko in security police custody.
I attended the service and wrote an
article which was published on September 21 1977 under the headline: “Biko was
a true Christian, service told.”
The article read:
Black Consciousness leader, Mr Steve
Biko, loved life and wanted to live to see that the deprived and hungry lived
and enjoyed, the Rev Ernest Baartman, general secretary of the Methodist
Missionary, said yesterday.
He was addressing a multiracial crowd
of more than 2 000 people at a memorial service at the Emmanuel Cathedral,
Durban, for Mr Biko, who died in security police custody in Pretoria last
Monday.
Mr Baartman said he met Mr Biko 11
days before he was detained on August 18 and found him to be a true Christian
and a man who hated nobody. He spoke from a position of strength and was one of
the few leaders who was busy thinking out the future society in South Africa.
Mr Biko wanted change so that all
South Africans would share in a free life and a just system.
Mr Baartman said one thing he could
vouch for was that Mr Biko loved food and drink and that, therefore, he was not
a man, who would give up his own life.
Mr Diliza Mji, former president of
the South African Students Association, called on the people to respond to Mr
Biko’s fight for liberation and the dignity of man.
“I believe that if we go out of here
and protest against the injustices, changes will come about sooner than we
think,” he said.
The memorial service was also
addressed by Dr Jerry Coovadia, vice-president of the Natal Indian Congress,
and Mr Tom Manthata of the Black Peoples’ Convention.
The black national anthem, “Nkosi
Sikelela iAfrica”, and other songs were sung by the multi-racial crowd.
More than 10 000 people observed
a minute’s silence in respect for Mr Biko at Currie’s Fountain before the start
of the Coca Cola Cup match between Durban’s Berea and Swaraj of Johannesburg. The
Federation Professional League has cancelled all its professional soccer
matches scheduled for next Sunday as a tribute to Mr Biko, who will
be buried that day in King William’s Town. Ends Sept 21 1977
Then when we started the Press Trust
of SA Third World News Agency in 1980, I continued to follow up the
developments following his cruel death. We wrote a number of articles which I
want to re-publish here.
AUGUST 16 1982
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MURDER
OF STEVE BIKO
On September 12 1977 the majority of
South Africans and the world at large were shocked into silence and disbelief
when one of the country’s brightest young black leaders met an untimely and
gruesome death at the hands of Pretoria’s security police. The young leader in
question was Steven Bantu Biko, the 30-year-old leader of the Black
Consciousness Movement (BCM). He died of head wounds and brain damage 25 days
after being detained along with a close friend, Peter Jones, at a road block in
the Eastern Cape region of the country on August 18 1977. Biko became the 43rd South
African political detainee to die under mysterious circumstances while under
police custody.
Today, five years later, Biko still
haunts the consciences of white South Africans and the white minority
government that was responsible for his brutal demise. Black South Africans, on
the other hand, remember Biko as a martyr of the ongoing liberation struggle in
South Africa.
AZAPO
The Azanian Peoples Organisation
(AZAPO), which replaced the Black Peoples Convention (BPC) and the South
African Students Organisation (SASO) that were banned after Biko’s death, has
organised a series of events to mark the 5th anniversary of his
death. Among the activities include, “Biko Week”, which will be held from
September 5 to 12, and a play on the life and death of the late black
consciousness leader. At the time of his unfortunate death, Biko, who was the
banned president of the BPC, was reportedly involved in moves inside the
country to unify the forces of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC) in an attempt to co-ordinate the struggles against
white minority rule. It is reported that he and Peter Jones were on this
particular mission when they were stopped at a road block between King
William’s Town and East London and detained under the country’s security laws. But
what was reported to be merely an arrest for breaking his banning orders turned
out to be one of the saddest events in the history of South Africa. He was held
in solitary confinement with no proper washing facilities in a cell at the
headquarters of the security police in Port Elizabeth. And later kept naked and
hand-cuffed and leg-shackled to the iron bars of his cell. On September 11 1977
when he was found to be in a state of collapse in the cell, he was transported,
lying naked in a land rover, to the Pretoria prison more than 1 200km
away. This the authorities said was done out of compassion for Biko because the
medical facilities in Pretoria were far better than those in Port Elizabeth. But
the next day Steve Biko died a miserable and lonely death on a mat on a stone
floor in the prison cell.
BIKO'S DEATH REVERBERATED AROUND THE
WORLD
Immediately after his death reverberated throughout South Africa and the world,
the then South African Minister of Justice, Jimmy Kruger, made small talk of
the tragedy when he told a cheering meeting of his ruling National Party in the
Transvaal province that Biko had starved himself to death.
JIMMY
KRUGER : : “I am not sad, I am not glad, it leaves me cold”.
He echoed the callousness and
satisfaction of the authorities when he announced: “I am not sad, I
am not glad, it leaves me cold”.Kruger’s callousness knew no bounds even when
it transpired that Steve Biko died of brain injuries. The Minister’s response was
typical:“A man can damage his brain in many ways.”He went onto imply suicide by
saying: “I don’t know if they were self-inflicted. But I often think of banging
my own head against a wall.”
“ASSAULTING TEAM”
Even the security police in charge of
Steve Biko at the time of his death, a Colonel Goosen, tried to absolve himself
and his men from any blame by saying that he had taken all measures to ensure
the safekeeping of detainees, and to make sure that they did not escape or
injure themselves. But in trying to find excuses he made a gigantic slip that
really landed him in the soup. He said: “I am proud that during Biko’s
interrogation, no assault charges had ever been laid against my ASSAULTING
TEAM.”
He later changed the phrase to
“interrogating team”.
But the truth of the matter was that
Steve Biko died of at least five brain lesions caused by the application of
external force to his head. The inquest into his death, however, found that no
one was responsible and cleared the security policemen of any blame.
Five years later, while black South
Africans again remember Biko, it is worth recounting the short life of the
activist who was chiefly responsible for conscientizing and politicising the
young people during the 1970s.
Biko was born to humble parents in
the small town of Ginsberg in the Eastern Cape region of the country where he
completed his early schooling and his matriculation. He proceeded to Durban to
do a doctor’s degree at the University of Natal Black Medical School where he
soon became involved in the activities of the multi-racial National Union of
South African Students (NUSAS).
(Steve Biko statue at the Durban
University of Technology)
NUSAS
But his association with NUSAS led to
disillusionment when he and his colleagues found that the black man could never
gain liberation by joining the debating chambers of white-controlled
organisations. It was against this background that Biko and his colleagues
established the South African Students Organisation (SASO) and later the Black
Peoples’ Convention (BPC) to cater for non-students operating outside the
apartheid system. Biko set the two organisations on their course when he
outlined the philosophy of black consciousness by saying that blacks had to
shake off all forms of imperialism – cultural, economical and psychological –
in order to win physical freedom. But his leadership was short-lived. The
Pretoria authorities, sensing that he was a force to be reckoned with, slapped
him with a five-year banning order in 1974 and restricted him to his home
district of King William’s Town.
“F0R WHEN BIKO THE MAN DIED, BIKO THE MARTYR WAS BORN”
However, in spite of the restrictions
and security police harassment, he continued to harness the thinking of the
young people and to be in the forefront of international spotlight. He was such
a charismatic and vociferous opponent of apartheid and white minority rule that
scores of diplomats and international personalities used to literally search
him out in the backdrop of Ginsberg for his views and thoughts about the
situation in South Africa. Therefore, when his death came suddenly and cruelly
on September 12 1977, black South Africa and the world cried “murder” at the
Pretoria authorities. To their shock and amazement an inquest into
his death found that no one was responsible, and the security policemen, who
were responsible for his detention, were cleared of all blame. Steve Biko, a
young freedom fighter and leader who initiated a fresh “revolution” and who had
outmanoeuvred an almost Nazi-system, is no more but his values and ideals still
live on in new organisations and projects. And they will certainly not
disappear. For when Biko the man died, Biko the martyr was born. Ends – Press
Trust of SA Third World News Agency August 16 1982
Nearly eight years after the
murder of Steve Biko, we published and distributed around the world the
following article: March 26 1985
BIKO SAGA CONTINUES
After eight years the shroud of
secrecy surrounding the death in police custody of the South African black
consciousness leader, Steve Biko, may at last be lifted. But the full facts may
never become known. The dastardly manner in which he was treated by two
district surgeons, Drs Ivor Lang and Benjamin Tucker, shortly before he died on
September 12 1977, is finally to be investigated by the South African Medical
and Dental Council (SAMDC).The Medical and Dental Council was forced to take
this action by the Supreme Court of the Transvaal province of the country
recently after the Council refused to investigate the conduct of the doctors
over the past eight years. The Supreme Court found there was evidence to
suggest “improper and disgraceful” conduct on the part of the two doctors after
a court action was brought by six leading medical personalities. The six
initiators of the court action were Professors Timothy Wilson, Frances Ames,
Trevor Jenkins and Philip Tobias and Drs Yousuf Variava and Dumisani Mzamane.
GOVT DOCTORS CULPABLE
The Biko saga began when he was
arrested at a roadblock near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape on August 18 1977
and detained in Port Elizabeth under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act. From
September 7 to 11 he was treated by Drs Lang and Tucker. He was then removed to
Pretoria where he died on September 12. At the subsequent inquest, Mr M J
Prins, the Chief Magistrate of Pretoria, found that Biko had died as a result
of injuries sustained after a “scuffle” with members of the security police. More
pertinently he found that evidence led at the inquest suggested improper or
disgraceful conduct on the part of the district surgeons. Despite complaints
lodged by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the Health Workers
Association, the Medical and Dental Council continued to maintain that there
was no evidence to merit a fully-fledged investigation. The evidence indicated
that at various periods Biko was manacled to the bars of his cell; that he fell
into semi-coma; that Lang and Tucker found evidence of brain damage but did not
inform the police and that regardless of the instructions of a neuro-surgeon he
was not kept under observation. Instead the doctors arranged for him to be
moved back to his prison cell where he was found in a dazed condition and
frothing at the mouth the next day. They thought he was faking but Tucker
suggested Biko be admitted hospital. Biko was then bundled into the back of a
police van and driven more than 1 200km to Pretoria. He was kept naked
throughout the trip, given no food and forced to use the back of the van to
urinate. The only medical attention he received was a vitamin injection when
they reached Pretoria. He died six hours later on a dust-covered floor in the
back yard of a police station. With the security police exonerated at the
inquest and a thorough investigation of the conduct of the two doctors
seemingly blocked by the Medical and Dental Council, it appeared that the Biko
affair had run its course - despite the international uproar – and
would be relegated to the files as just another death in detention.
Biko’s treatment by the doctors and
the Medical and Dental Council’s refusal to act decisively on the matter had
certainly not improved the image of the profession in the eyes of the world. But
ever since the Council first decided in April 1980 that there were
no grounds to warrant an investigation, concerned members of the profession had
been persistently trying to force the Council’s hand. Now, after eight years of
struggle, justice is most likely to be realised.
DR YOUSUF VARIAVA
Dr Variava, one of the doctors who
brought the case against the Medical and Dental Council, said he was very
pleased but added that the South African political situation, however, still
remained the same as when Biko died.
“I am happy only from the medical
ethics aspect of it but many people who handled Biko before he died until now
have not been brought forward to a court of law.
“Those people must surely be charged
with murder,” he said.
ISHMAEL MAKHABELA
The president of the Azanian Peoples
Organisation (AZAPO), an organisation which took over from Biko’s Black
Peoples’ Convention(BPC), Ishmael Makhabela, said the political bias and
sickening double-standards of the white-controlled Medical and Dental Council
had now become obvious.
“It is AZAPO’s contention that very
little has changed in South Africa ever since our early leaders were dragged to
Robben Island. We will only be satisfied when the Pretoria regime has been
toppled,” he said.
Mr Makhabela said under the rule of
the minority regime some 50 political prisoners had died in police custody from
“causes” as varied as “slipping on soap” and “falling down stairs”.
“It’s clear that the surgeons, Lang
and Tucker, had put the interests of the security police over and above those
of Biko.
“If Biko’s prominence as a leader and
political thinker could not provoke anything other than the most cursory
treatment from the district surgeons, one wonders what the common detainee and
the common citizen can expect from the authorities.”
“It is easy to understand the
reluctance of an august body as the Medical and Dental Council to investigate
the district surgeons.
“Indeed, Biko’s intellectual and
political stature within the country and the international outcry precipitated
by his death would on all accounts have behoved a meticulous purging of the
profession – especially considering the searing nature of the evidence led at
the inquest.”
TERROR LEKOTA
Mr Terror Lekota, the publicity
secretary of the United Democratic Front (UDF), said:
“The Medical and Dental Council
investigations will go a lot further than bringing the Biko killers to book.
Hopefully, it will serve as a warning to doctors in South Africa to treat
detainees as human beings.” - Ends – Press Trust of SA Independent Third World
News Agency March 23 1985
(Steve Biko statue at the
Durban University of Technology)
STEVE BIKO DEATH PROBED AGAIN
IN 1985
This is yet another article that we
published and circulated to all parts of the world in July 1985 about the
gruesome manner in which black consciousness leader, Steve Biko, died in police
custody at the hands of the former apartheid regime on September 12 1977.
July 8 1985
JUSTICE
AT LAST FOR BIKO DOCTORS?
INTRO: Ever since Black Consciousness
leader, Steve Biko, died in police custody in September 1977, the South African
Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) has been reluctant to investigate the
conduct of the district surgeons who treated him as he lay dying.
Earlier this year, however, following
an application by six prominent doctors, the Supreme Court sitting in Pretoria,
ordered the Medical and Dental Council to hold an inquiry into the conduct of
Drs Ivor Lang and Benjamin Tucker.
This week a Disciplinary Committee of
the Medical and Dental Council found the doctors guilty of improper and
disgraceful conduct and then, merely, reprimanded them. Subry Govender writes
that considering the gravity of the offences, the leniency with which the Biko
doctors have been treated is being seen by South Africans as yet another
example of “racial” justice…..
JUSTICE FOR DOCTORS WH0 FAILED IN
THEIR DUTIES WHEN TREATING BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS LEADER, STEVE BIKO
The evidence led at the inquest
hearing into the death of Steve Biko on September 12 1977 has shocked South
Africans and the international community at large.
It showed that by civilised standards
Biko was treated barbarically before his death. He was kept manacled hand and
foot and then transported naked in the back of a police van 1 200km from
Port Elizabeth to Pretoria where he succumbed to his wounds. This week, and
only after being ordered by the Pretoria Supreme Court, the South African
Medical and Dental Council, finally held an inquiry into the conduct of the
doctors who attended to Biko in the five days before he died. If anything, the
evidence at the inquiry was even more horrific. The inquiry heard that when the
doctors were first called in by the Security police to attend to Biko, they found
him on a cell mat soaked with urine. His blanket and clothing were soaked and
he was fettered hand and foot.
The doctors examined him by the light
of a torch and issued a certificate, declaring him to be without evidence of
pathology.
On a second occasion the doctors
again found Biko to be soaked in urine, but could not make a diagnosis. They
did ask, though, for Biko to be transferred to a provincial hospital.
Three days later Dr Tucker was called
in for a third time to examine Biko.
According to Colonel Pieter Goosen,
the security policeman in charge, Biko appeared to be in a semi-coma and was
frothing at the mouth. He was lying on the floor on mats and the police officer
could get no reaction from him. Despite the fact that Biko was obviously
seriously ill, Dr Tucker could again make no diagnosis. He merely repeated that
Biko be taken to a provincial hospital.
BRAIN DAMAGE
According to the evidence Biko had
been exhibiting various symptoms consistent with possible brain damage. His
gait was irregular, he was foaming at the mouth, was confused, hyperventilating
and bed-wetting, and had swollen feet and lesions on the forehead and lips.
A neuro-surgeon after finding blood
in a lumber puncture tap had also recommended that both doctors closely observe
the detainee. Despite all these signs, the doctors, according to Colonel
Goosen, maintained that they could find nothing wrong with the patient and
never mentioned the possibility of brain damage.
Instead Dr Tucker agreed to Biko
being transported 1 200km by road to Pretoria.
Eight years later, Dr Tucker has now
been found guilty on 10 counts of disgraceful conduct and three counts of improper
conduct.
The inquiry recommended that he be
suspended from practice for three months, this itself suspended for two years.
It recommended that Dr Lang, who was
found guilty on eight counts of improper conduct, be cautioned and discharged.
The leniency with which the two
doctors have been treated has drawn sharp reaction from the black community.
AZAPO PRESIDENT
The president of the Azanian Peoples
Organisation (AZAPO), which follows the black consciousness philosophy of Biko,
Mr Ishmael Makhabela, said they viewed the lenient sentences in a very serious
light.
“These convictions are just a
farcical action by the Medical and Dental Council to placate the international
community and defuse the matter.
“Steve Biko’s death will, however, continue
to haunt those who murdered him and those who were accomplices to his death.”
DR
JOE PAHLA
Dr Joe Pahla, the permanent organiser
of the National Medical and Dental Association (NAMDA), which is an alternative
medical organisation that was started after Biko’s death, said the campaign by
the black community and others had been vindicated by the doctors being found
guilty of shirking their medical responsibilities.
“However, it was actually the system
of detention without trial and other methods used by the security police that
should be put on trial,” he said.
MRS HELEN SUZMAN
Veteran opposition leader in the
white parliament, Mrs Helen Suzman, said that the recommended sentences were
“superficial punishment, and astonishing in view of the offences of which the
doctors have been found guilty”.
“It is reprehensible that the council
had to be forced to take action and furthermore that these doctors should get
so lenient sentences for acts which brought South Africa into disgrace.”
The leniency with which the doctors
have been treated will rankle in the black community, especially as the
statutory Medical and Dental Council had always contended that there were no
grounds for an inquiry.
The inquiry may not have lifted the
shroud of secrecy surrounding Biko’s death, but it is bound to spawn calls to
bring to justice all those who were actually responsible for the untimely death
of the brilliant black consciousness leader.
The Biko case will not be allowed to
rest by the black people as long as his murderers are walking free in the
corridors of power in the South African Government and in the security police
establishment. Ends – July 8 1985 Press Trust of SA Independent
Third World News Agency
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