South Africa - September 2025

On 12 September, in the High Court, South African prosecutors reopened an inquest into the death of prominent anti-apartheid leader Stephen Biko, who died in 1977 after allegedly being tortured by five members of the apartheid state’s police force. A founder of the Black Conscious Movement that aimed to empower and mobilise black South Africans, Biko’s death had a profound impact on the country. In 1977, a widely criticised inquest determined that he had died of an extensive brain injury, but did not assign criminal responsibility, accepting the testimony of the police officers that the injury had been self-inflicted. Despite admitting to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997 that they had fabricated their statements, the officers (two of whom are still alive) were not prosecuted. As well as revisiting the cause of Biko’s death and potentially paving the way for prosecutions, the inquest aims to ‘provide closure to the Biko family and society at large.’ 

Sources: National Prosecuting Authority, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Daily Maverick