New inquest into death of anti-apartheid hero Steve Biko

AN inquest into the death of anti-apartheid legend Steve Biko was reopened yesterday, 48 years after he died in police custody.

- BY ANDY LINES Chief Reporter and PAUL MARTIN

And prosecutors warn the two surviving officers of the five involved in the attack could still face prosecution over the murder of the South African activist.

The move gives Biko's family hope they may finally get justice for his death at 30 from a brain haemorrhage in 1977.

But his eldest son Nkosi-nathi said: "I don't want revenge. The cops are now old men.

"What I want is the full truth to come out, at last."

Biko, inspired by then-jailed Nelson Mandela, led the campaign against the hated apartheid regime that stripped Black people of rights and segregated them from whites.

He went on to become a global icon. Singer Peter Gabriel dedicated his powerful song Biko to him in 1980 and, in 1987, Hollywood actor Denzel Washington played the hero in the film Cry Freedom.

Biko's family has been demanding a reopening of the inquest for decades.

The original hearing concluded no one was to blame for his death, sparking protests across South Africa and revulsion around the world.