The reopened inquest into the death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko heard testimony on 27 August 2026 at the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Gqeberha that police dockets central to the case contain missing pages and incomplete records, complicating efforts to establish the full circumstances of his death in custody nearly 49 years ago.
According to Daily Maverick, which reported on the proceedings on 27 August 2026, the investigator assigned to the reopened inquest in August 2021 told the court she encountered dockets with missing pages and others that appeared to “stop in the middle of nowhere.” She said she had to search archives at the National Archives and the University of the Witwatersrand to try to recover missing pieces.
SABC News reported on 25 August 2026 that the Biko family’s legal team needed time to review thousands of pages of records from the original 1977 inquest, much of it in Afrikaans and requiring translation before proceedings could continue. ANA/IOL confirmed on 26 August 2026 that the family’s legal team had been granted funding and that documents from both the 1977 inquest and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings were still missing.
News24 separately reported on 27 August 2026 that the court also heard evidence about dead witnesses, missing documents, and the absence of a neurosurgeon linked to the original case. The outlet noted that aging and unavailable witnesses further complicate the reconstruction of events from September 1977, when Biko died in police custody after being detained and interrogated by the apartheid Security Branch.
“We need to examine documentation from IUEF and the involvement of Mr Williamson. We want him to be subpoenaed,” Ngqiqo Sakhele, representing the family’s legal interests, told SABC News on 25 August 2026, referring to alleged intelligence links to the case.
The problem of missing Biko records is not new. A Department of Justice archive record from September 1999, preserved on the TRC media archive, noted that evidence and documentation relating to Biko’s death had gone missing, describing it as a case involving “finding certain documentation that has gone missing and collating evidence, finding witnesses.” However, not all material is lost: UCT Libraries hold indexed archival records relating to the 1977 inquest, confirming that at least some documentary material survives in institutional collections.
The fragmented state of the records poses a practical challenge for the court. Incomplete dockets may weaken the ability to test witness evidence, reconstruct the sequence of events in Biko’s detention, and determine whether any criminal act or omission caused his death. Claims that all relevant documents are destroyed, or that specific individuals deliberately concealed records, remain unverified and have not been established by at least two independent sources.
What remains unknown is whether the archive searches conducted by the investigator recovered enough material to fill the gaps identified in the dockets, and whether additional witnesses can be located or compelled to testify. Cape Flats will check for further developments when the inquest resumes.