Too little, too late: the performative Biko inquest

ON FRIDAY, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) reopened the inquest into the death of Black Consciousness Movement founder Steve Bantu Biko exactly 48 years after his death.

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On paper, this looks like progress, but in reality, it feels more performative and symbolic.

The evidence of Biko’s brutal death has never been in doubt. Doctors testified to the beatings. Witnesses spoke of the assaults. Even the apartheid state’s own inquest revealed the shocking injuries, but no one was held responsible. The democratic state, armed with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings and decades of opportunity, could have pursued justice long ago. It did not.