Steve Biko inquest is long overdue as nation searches for answers

THE first thought on my mind this morning is Steve Biko’s brutal death at the hands of the evil apartheid agencies.

- K HIMISH | Cape Town

Fifty years ago, Biko died in police custody, following his arrest on the 18th of August. Biko was arrested and detained under the Terrorism Act of 1967, which had been designed to facilitate the government's fight against “terrorists”.

In reality, the law was used to pursue and prosecute various organisations and individuals who resisted state control.

Professor John Dugard put it most aptly in 1978, a year after the assassination of Biko, that “although designed to combat terrorism, the Terrorism Act has itself become an instrument of terror”