BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)

39th year  -  N° 89                 Friday, 29 March 2024         Antwerpen		
Out in the Real World
BirthFactDeath (-)
Monday 12th of September 1977

47 years ago



Anti-apartheid activist Steve Stephen Bantu Biko dies of a brain hemorrhage from massive injuries to the head at the age of 31 in Pretoria Central Prison, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.


Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 and interrogated and tortured in a coma for 22 hours by police officers Harold Snyman and Gideon Nieuwoudt in Police Room 619 in Port Elizabeth Walmer Police Station on 18 August 1977. On 11 September police loaded Biko in the back of a Land Rover, naked and restrained in manacles, and began the 1100 km drive to Pretoria to take him to a prison with hospital facilities. Biko was nearly dead owing to the previous injuries and died shortly after arrival at the Pretoria prison.