The name Steve Biko still rattles the nerves of Port Elizabeth's security branch. Ten years later the mention of his name prompts an intake of breath and questions provoke only stubborn silence. Eight out of the 10 people involved in the inquest into the death of the black consciousness leader were promoted after his death.
Jimmy Kruger
The only one to receive a smack was the minister of justice, police and prisons, Jimmy Kruger. He was axed from the cabinet when PW Botha was elected prime minister in 1979. Jimmy "his (Biko's) death leaves me cold" – Kruger received a cosmetic promotion in 1979 when he was elected to the Office of the President of the Senate – a prestige post which successfully removed him from any political roll in the newly-formed government.
When the senate was disbanded in 1981, Kruger joined his son's law firm in Pretoria and two years later was admitted as an attorney to the Pretoria Supreme Court. He had withdrawn from politics but remained a member of the head committee of the Transvaal National Party. After a controversial nine years in parliament as deputy minister of police, health and welfare and then minister of justice from 1974, Kruger died in May this year, a member of the Conservative Party. Up until the inquest Kruger insisted Biko had died after a hunger strike but later referred to kidney failure.
Colonel Pieter Johannes Goosen
The divisional commander of the security police in the Eastern Province at the time of Biko's death was promoted to brigadier and now lives in Pretoria. His statement in the inquest court – that the security police "don't work under statutes" – could have landed him with writing traffic tickets for the rest of his career. Instead, he was promoted.
The first detainee to die in Goosen's care was schoolteacher George Botha, 30, who, on December 15, 1976, allegedly jumped down the stairwell on the sixth floor of the Sanlam Building, headquarters of the security police. During the inquest Goosen said Biko was found in his clothes in a full bath on September 8 and 9 while in the prison hospital. "The deceased was apparently determined on self-destruction, even with his methods of breathing," he said. Goosen later said Biko could "have hurt his head when he fell out of bed".
Major Harold Synman
The head of the team of five men who interrogated Biko in Room 619, Sanlam Building, now works at Sanlam – as a life insurance representative. He was promoted to the head of the security police in the Eastern Cape in January 1984 and retired in June last year after more than 20 years as a security policeman. Snyman last week said he retired from the police force so many years ago that he could not remember and did not want to talk about events surrounding Biko. During the inquest Snyman was questioned extensively as to what transpired on September 6 and 7. He said Biko had attacked one of the members of the interrogation team on the morning of September 7.
During a scuffle Biko had banged his head against the wall. It had taken five police officers to hold him down so that they could fasten his hands and feet to the grille. Sidney Kentridge, SC, counsel for the Biko family, questioned the fact that the scuffle ever took place. Snyman later admitted that he did not see Biko hit his head against the wall and "I think he must have sustained the injury after the last time I saw him on September 8". The cause of Biko's death was diagnosed as a "head injury with associated extensive brain injuries followed by centrafisation of the blood circulation, dissenuinated infravascular coagulation, as well as renal failure, with uraemia".
After queries into the whereabouts of the five men who interrogated Biko under Snyman the Weekly Mail was told by Captain Piet Grobler, press liaison officer for the Eastern Cape, that he had been told by the present head of the security police in Port Elizabeth, Colonel S Gilbert not to divulge any information about the men. However, in an earlier conversation Grobler disclosed that the five men had been promoted. They were Warrant Officer Beneke, Detective Sergeant Nieuwoudt, Warrant Officer Marx, Lieutenant Winston Eric Wilken and Captain Danie Siebert. The latter three gave evidence during the inquest. "Wilken admitted that he had seen a mark on Biko's forehead on September 6, the night before the alleged scuffle took place. He and Siebert had guarded Biko during the 1 200 km landrover trip to Pretoria. They testified they thought Biko was shamming because he would breathe unnaturally "especially outside a town – to attract people's attention".
Dr Ivor Lang and Dr Benjamin Tucker
Eight years after the death of Biko, the two district surgeons who treated him during the five days before he was taken to Pretoria sat before the disciplinary committee of the South African Medical and Dental Council.
Lang was found guilty of improper conduct under eight subordinate charges relating to his treatment of Biko. Tucker was found guilty on 10 counts under a main charge that his professional conduct had been disgraceful and three allegations of improper conduct in his treatment of Biko. The council recommended that Tucker be suspended for three months, but that the operation of the penalty be suspended for two years. However, he was due to retire within a year, and did so in 1986. Lang is now the senior district surgeon for Port Elizabeth and the surrounding areas.
The SAMDC found that Tucker had failed to object to Biko being transported in a landrover to Pretoria, that he failed to ascertain further advice from other doctors on Biko's condition and he did not conduct a proper medical examination. The council found that Lang had issued an incorrect certificate and a misleading bedletter on Biko's condition. The bedletter had stated that the lumbar puncture conducted on Biko by a neurosurgeon was "normal" when the surgeon's evidence was that blood had been found in the spinal fluid, indicating a brain contusion.
During the inquest Lang admitted the medical certificate he had written on September 7 was "highly incorrect". At the time of the examination, Biko had a swollen lip, superficial bruising on the chest, swollen hands, feet and ankles, an ataxic walk and slurred speech. Lang also told the inquest court that at later medical examinations at which other doctors were present Biko was found to have echolalia (a condition where a patient repeats a word in a sentence again and again) and an extensor plantar reflex of the left foot, in which the toes point upwards instead of down when the sole of the foot is scratched – a sign of possible brain damage and impossible to, sham, he said. Biko spent 25 days in detention. The doctors and security policemen who were with him in the last few days of his life 10 years ago have never been tried or convicted of any criminal action. – Ecna
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail
