Biko letter on auction

A LETTER signed by human rights activist Steve Biko regarding the death and investigation of Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) member Mapetla Mohapi will be auctioned in the US tomorrow.

Los Angeles based Nate D Sanders Auctions said in a statement that bids for the letter Biko wrote from King William’s Town on January 12, 1977, would open at $3 000 (R43 000).

The apartheid regime barred Biko from leaving King William’s Town as it viewed the BCM as a threat. In the letter, Biko asked permission to meet Mohapi’s attorneys over his inquest, since he died in police custody the year before. On September 12, 1977, Biko died after a brutal beating by apartheid police forces.