A RECKONING: Biko family wants ex-apartheid spy Craig Williamson compelled to testify at reopened inquest

Steve Biko’s family wants a former apartheid spy back in the spotlight as the long-awaited inquest into the anti-apartheid activist’s death gets under way, nearly five decades after he died in police custody.

Steve Biko’s family, still seeking truth and answers nearly 49 years after he died in the custody of apartheid security forces, wants former apartheid spy Craig Williamson to appear before the reopened inquest into the anti-apartheid activist’s death.

Williamson infiltrated anti-apartheid organisations while working as a spy for the apartheid government before his cover was blown in 1980. He testified last year at the third inquest into the deaths of the Cradock Four – Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlauli, Sparrow Mkonto and Matthew Goniwe – where he was questioned about his role in the apartheid security apparatus and his knowledge of anti-apartheid activists.

It was during those proceedings that Williamson testified that he had surveilled Biko.

It is this testimony, together with Williamson’s knowledge of the apartheid security machinery, that prompted the Biko family’s lawyer, Ngqiqo Sakhela, to ask the court on Tuesday for a subpoena compelling him to testify in the reopened inquest into Biko’s death.

The National Prosecuting Authority last September announced that the inquest into Biko’s death had been reopened.

The proceedings were initially expected to get under way on Monday, 24 August, but were delayed due to uncertainty around the Biko family’s legal representation.

The family had applied to Legal Aid SA for funding, but its acting chief executive officer, Ntsumbedzeni Nemasisi, told the court that Biko’s widow, Nontsikelelo “Ntsiki” Biko, did not qualify because her income and the value of her assets exceeded the organisation’s means-test threshold.

Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi subsequently approved state funding for the family’s legal representation.

Arguing on Tuesday, 25 August for a postponement, Sakhela told the court that the family needed more time to prepare because the legal team had to work through a “voluminous” record running into thousands of pages.

Some of the documents from the original inquest, he said, were in Afrikaans and needed to be translated into English. The translation process would take weeks and cost about R100,000, said Sakhela.

Further complicating preparations, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, who had represented the Biko family pro bono, was appointed as an acting judge of the Constitutional Court. In addition, other lawyers assisting the family had taken on new cases, leaving them short-staffed and needing time to rebuild a legal team for the inquest.

But on Wednesday, 26 August, former KwaZulu-Natal deputy judge president Mjabuliseni Isaac Madondo dismissed the application for a further postponement. He questioned the timing of the application and stressed the importance of getting on with the inquest while witnesses who can still give evidence are available.

Only two of the eight witnesses to the events surrounding Biko’s death are still alive and available to testify, Madondo noted.