PILLAR TO POST: Biko inquest investigator tells of missing records, incomplete dockets

An investigator probing Steve Biko’s death was sent from pillar to post by missing records and incomplete dockets, but uncovered a key witness account before the long-awaited inquest reopened.

The investigator tasked with piecing together the circumstances of anti-apartheid activist and the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement Steve Biko’s death was sent from pillar to post by missing docket pages and incomplete records, but managed to secure an affidavit from a witness who treated Biko in prison just months before his own death and the start of the reopened inquest.

Sergeant Fundiswa Dingiswayo, an investigator attached to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) in KuGompo City (formerly East London), was the first witness to testify in the reopening of the inquest into Biko’s death in September 1977.

Dingiswayo testified in the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Gqeberha on 27 August 2026 that she was assigned the investigation in August 2021, and from the jump encountered several obstacles, including dockets with missing pages and others that appeared to “stop in the middle of nowhere”.

Dingiswayo, who said investigations into cases of this nature required investigators to “scrap around”, turned to the National Archives in search of pieces of the puzzle. But there she found little of use. She was, however, able to recover some of the missing pieces relating to Biko’s death from the archives of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Her investigation also involved tracing witnesses who could shed light on what happened to Biko after he was arrested in the Eastern Cape and transported to Pretoria.

The witness she traced was Gabriel Ndlovu, a former detainee at Pretoria Central Prison – now known as the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre – who worked in the prison’s hospital section.

Ndlovu died in April 2026, but Dingiswayo managed to obtain an affidavit from him before his death. Part of the affidavit was read into the record on Thursday.

According to Ndlovu’s statement, Biko arrived at the Pretoria prison alone and was kept in the hospital section.

Ndlovu said in his affidavit that Biko had bruising on his face, appeared to have been assaulted and was unable to speak.

Biko, who died at the age of 30 on 12 September 1977, had been arrested with fellow activist Peter Jones at a roadblock near Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) on 18 August 1977 after breaching a banning order restricting his movement to Qonce (former King William’s Town).

He was taken to the Walmer police station in Gqeberha, where he was detained by members of the Security Branch.

Biko was subsequently transported to Pretoria in the back of a police vehicle while unconscious, naked and shackled.

His death was attributed to an extensive brain injury and acute kidney failure.