BC ADHERENTS TO HOLD A SERVICE INSIDE PRISON CELL WHERE STEVE BIKO DIED

By

GSMN Correspondent

The Black Consciousness Movement-United (BCM-U) and the Azanian Peoples’ Organization (AZAPO) have announced a joint program to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Steve Biko‘s death in detention in Pretoria on September 12.

The announcement was made on the eve of the National Black Consciousness week marking the last painful but defiant days of Biko’s torture and torment in the hands of the police of racist white apartheid regime.

Biko died on 12 September, 1977. His death sparked world-wide awareness about the brutality of apartheid South Africa under white minority rule as well as the suffering of the oppressed Black people.

Biko, regarded as the father of Black Consciousness in SA, was transported for over 1 000 kilometers from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape to Pretoria – all through on the back of a police vehicle van naked, manacled, critical and with no medical support.

Distraught mourners gather around Steve Biko’s body to pay respect before his funeral, attended by over 20 000 (King William’s Town / 1977) (Image: Drum Social Histories / Baileys African History Archive / Africa Media Online)

According to the subsequent inquest into his death, Biko died a lonely death on the mat of a prison cell at the then notorious Pretoria Central prison, since the end apartheid regime-named Kgoshi Mampuru Correctional Services.

The event on Friday 12 September will comprise speeches by the leaders of the two torch bearers of Biko’s philosophy – the laying of the wreath in the cell in which Biko died – prayers – artistic performance and singing of revolutionary songs.

The event will start at 10am at the Kgoshi Mampuru Correctional Service.

AZAPO’s Biko Day commemoration, at the prison cell where Biko was inhumanely left for dead (Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Facility – formerly: Pretoria Central Prison / 2020) (Image: James Mahlokwane)

AZAPO will be represented by Mr Amukelani Ngobeni, the national chairperson – Ms Kekeletso Khena the Gauteng chairperson and Mr Katleho Radebe, the Gauteng youth secretary.

For its part, the BCM-U will be represented by Ms Tshepiso Ramahloko from the youth guard in Gauteng – Black Theology stalwart, Professor Mamabolo Raphesu and Dr Hlulani Mabasa, the national president.

Former Azanian Student Movement‘s publicity secretary, Reverend Kgomotso Modiselle is expected to deliver the open prayer.

*Steve Bantu Biko, The Father of Black Consciousness (Image: Facing History)*

Biko is synonymous with the Struggle for freedom in SA. He inspired a generation on June 16, 1976 with his clarion call to Blacks to revolt against apartheid through acts such as expression of self-love and Black solidarity.

September 6-12 is regarded as Biko Week, culminating in Biko Day on the 12 September every year.

Biko was buried in his hometown of Ginsberg township outside the former King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape. His name has been immortalized through the renaming of a hospital and street in his names in the country’s capital, Pretoria.

Biko Lives!