12 November 2025 By Phiwokuhle Mothemela Algoa FM
Steve Biko inquest postponed to January 2026
ENCA Thursday 13 November 2025
JOHANNESBURG – The inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist and Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko has been postponed to 30 January 2026.
The two have applied for state funding for their legal defence.
Biko died 48 years ago, allegedly at the hands of the apartheid police’s Special Branch.
The pair was initially cleared of wrongdoing, but the Truth and Reconciliation Commission later denied them amnesty.
The NPA and law enforcement say they remain committed to tackling apartheid-era crimes and bringing closure to victims’ families.
The delay will allow for case management and finalisation of legal funding for potential suspects.
Prosecutors have named two former apartheid police officers as persons of interest.
https://www.enca.com/news-top-stories/steve-biko-inquest-postponed-january-2026
Will South Africa’s Biko inquest finally yield justice for struggle icon?
No perpetrators have ever been brought to justice after 1977 death-in-detention of renowned anti-apartheid leader, Steve Biko.
AL JAZEERA By Gershwin Wanneburg Published On 12 Nov 2025
Cape Town, South Africa – On an August evening in 1977, 30‑year‑old Steve Biko was on his way back from an aborted secret meeting with an anti-apartheid activist in Cape Town, taking the 12‑hour drive back home to King William’s Town. But it was a journey the resistance fighter would never finish, for he was arrested and, less than a month later, was dead.
Against the backdrop of increasingly harsh racist laws in South Africa, Biko, a bold and forthright youth leader, had emerged as one of the loudest voices calling for change and Black self-determination.
A famously charming and eloquent speaker, he was often touted as Nelson Mandela’s likely successor in the struggle for freedom after the core of the anti-apartheid leadership was jailed in the 1960s.
But his popularity also made him a prime target of the apartheid regime, which put him under banning orders that severely restricted his movement, political activities, and associations; imprisoned him for his political activism; and ultimately caused his death in detention – a case that continues to resonate decades later, largely because none of the perpetrators have ever been brought to justice.
On September 12 this year, 48 years after Biko died, South Africa’s Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi ordered a new inquest into his death. The hearing resumed at the Eastern Cape High Court on Wednesday before being postponed to January 30.
There are “two persons of interest” implicated in Biko’s death who are still alive, according to the country’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), which aims to determine whether there is enough evidence that he was murdered, and therefore grounds to prosecute his killers.
Steve Biko inquest postponed to next year
GQEBERHA – The reopened inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko has been postponed to 30 January, as two former police officers who are persons of interest in the case seek state funding for their legal representation.
The Gqeberha High Court postponed the inquest today for further case management and to finalise legal funding arrangements for the two surviving former officers implicated in Biko’s death 48 years ago.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Eastern Cape, the two persons of interest in the matter, both former police officers, have applied for the state to fund their legal representatives, which must be confirmed before the inquest can proceed.
https://novanews.co.za/steve-biko-inquest-postponed-to-next-year/
Biko inquest adjourned for decision on legal funding for former policemen
TIMES LIVE
Prosecutors say there are two people of interest in the matter who are still alive
he reopened inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist and Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) founder and leader, Stephen Bantu Biko, has been adjourned to January 30 for further case management and finalisation of legal funding for two apartheid-era policemen.
The prosecution told the Gqeberha high court on Wednesday that there were two people of interest in the matter who are still alive.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said the two former police officers had applied for the state to fund their legal representation, which has to be confirmed before the inquest proceeds.
Steve Biko inquest postponed to January
Algoa FM 12 Nov 2025 | Phiwokuhle Mothemela
The inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Biko was postponed to 30 January in the Gqeberha High Court on Wednesday.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority the matter was postponed so that “persons of interest” may apply for funding for their legal representation, which has to be confirmed before the inquest proceeds.
The National prosecuting authority said in a statement that Biko died on 12 September 1977 after he was allegedly tortured to death by the apartheid regime’s notorious Special Branch, who were never prosecuted because they were cleared by a “whitewash inquest.”
“They were also not granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the dispensation of the democratic government in South Africa,” said regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali.
Algoa FM previously reported that the legal counsel for the Biko family, Advocate Temebeka Ngcukaitobi said that two former security policemen, Johan Beneke, and Daniel Siebert, who are now in their eighties, were persons of interest in the matter.
https://www.algoafm.co.za/local/steve-biko-inquest-postponed-to-january
