Zuma visits Biko’s jail cell
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the passing of Struggle icon Steve Bantu Biko by laying a wreath inside a cell in which he was detained at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
Biko, a former Black Consciousness Movement leader, died on September 12, 1977, in the cell at the then Pretoria Central Prison following his arrest a month earlier
He had been severely beaten by the apartheid security police while in detention in Port Elizabeth. He sustained serious injuries, including brain damage.
Zuma reminisced about Biko’s role in the Struggle and his political campaign to conscientise black people about the importance of liberating their minds.
“He very much tried to conscientise the country that black was not a sin. It is an act of God. We should not feel inferior about it. We should be proud of it because it is what we are,” he said.
Zuma hailed Biko for keeping to his words that people must not fear.
“He was not afraid. He was expelled at school (where) he was doing medicine and followed to his home, banned and confined because he was speaking his mind,” he said.
Despite being arrested and tortured he never gave in and was prepared to die, Zuma said.
He described Biko as a “hero (who) we must remember together with other heroes who fought for our freedom”.
“Today we are here visiting the prison in which he was kept, particularly the cell in which he lived and lost his life, just to come and remember him and many other heroes who participated in our Struggle,” Zuma said.
He used the opportunity to remind the country that the attainment of political freedom was not enough without economic emancipation.
He further encouraged black people to be part of the struggle to “correct the wrongs of history”. The president remarked that South Africa was still a country made up of two worlds, defined by rich and poor status.