As tributes poured in on the 45th anniversary of the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) slammed government for failing to advance his ideas.
Biko died at the age of 30 on 12 September 1977.
He was arrested on 18 August 1977 by the apartheid police. He was then beaten, starved and then chained naked in a Pretoria Central Prison.
Since then, the country has celebrated the life of Biko – the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.
Biko also fought the apartheid government. He also founded the South African Students Organisation (SASO) in 1968, in an effort to represent the interests of black students.
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Azapo commemoration of Steve Biko
During Biko’s commemoration on Sunday at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, Eastern Cape, Azapo president Nelvis Qekema said Biko would be appalled to see the state black people are in since democracy.
“If Steve Biko found us in this condition, he would cry,” Qekema said. He added that this means Biko’s death was in vain.
“After 28 years the wealth of this country is still controlled by 10% of white people. Biko would cry. If Steve came and saw that black schools are using pit latrines, pit toilets, Steve Biko would cry,” Qekema reiterated.
‘Biko was denied human dignity’ Ramaphosa
In his weekly newsletter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the apartheid regime feared Biko’s “power and resonance of his ideas of self-liberation and his efforts to infuse black men and women with pride and dignity”.
Ramaphosa said Biko died a lonely and miserable death.
A security police officer later testified that Biko was transported for 12 hours from his Port Elizabeth prison cell, naked and unconscious, to a Pretoria hospital the day before he died.
“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.
“Twenty years later, in a 1997 judgment, the Constitutional Court said that fulfilling the fundamental rights of every sokonnect and striving to achieve their socio-economic rights is the hallmark of a democratic society aiming to salvage lost dignity,” said Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa added that the country needs to keep Biko’s legacy alive by addressing the challenges of achieving a truly free and equal society.
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