The family of Steve Biko held a wreath-laying at his grave in Qonce on Saturday, 12 September 2026, marking 49 years since the Black Consciousness leader died in apartheid police custody.
Church services were held across South Africa and a memorial lecture was delivered at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, according to Nkosinathi Biko, Biko’s eldest son, who spoke to Daily Maverick ahead of the day.
The commemorations came just four days after Judge Jannie Eksteen granted an indefinite postponement of a reopened inquest into Biko’s death, following an urgent application by the family at the Gqeberha High Court on 8 September.
“We remain deeply concerned about delays, but equally concerned about the possibility of a process that was merely performative,” Nkosinathi Biko told Daily Maverick.
The inquest had heard stark forensic evidence from Dr Shakeera Holland, a pathologist who testified earlier in September that Biko’s extensive head injuries were inflicted at different times over several days.
“There was no evidence to indicate that the extensive injuries documented during Biko’s original autopsy were inflicted during a single incident,” Holland said, directly contradicting the police account accepted in the original 1977 inquest.
Biko was arrested on 18 August 1977 at a roadblock near Makhanda for violating his banning order, then driven more than 1 000 km in a police van from Gqeberha to Pretoria while injured.
He died on 12 September that year at the Kgoshi Mampuru II Correctional Facility, then known as Pretoria Central Prison, from a brain haemorrhage.
The 1977 inquest cleared police after accepting their version that Biko sustained a fatal head injury during a scuffle with officers.
Nkosinathi Biko said the anniversary was usually a time when “thousands of South Africans on their social pages celebrate his life”.
Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, speaking at a separate commemoration covered by SABC News, told young people that “it is the telling of uncomfortable truth that killed Biko”.
The family has not indicated when it will seek the inquest to resume, but Nkosinathi Biko stressed they wanted accountability, not a “performative” process.
Reporting by Daily Maverick provided the details of the family’s plans and the inquest postponement; CapeFlats.co.za did not have journalists at the grave or the court and has not independently verified local commemorations in the Cape Flats.
It remains unclear when the inquest may be rescheduled and whether additional witnesses will be called once proceedings continue.