AZAPO commemorates Biko’s death

Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) has visited the cell in which struggle icon Steve Biko died on 12 September 1977. This is an annual event in which organisations aligned to the Black Consciousness philosophy, commemorate the assassination of Biko with activities across the country, throughout the month of September.

Biko died in detention.

On this day, 12 September 1977 we remember Steve Bantu Biko who died at the hands of apartheid state operativeshttps://t.co/iBcXKAFBDZ #SteveBiko pic.twitter.com/jMIXR48HtG

— NelsonMandela (@NelsonMandela) September 12, 2019

AZAPO president, Strike Thokoane, says the country is in crisis because the leadership has ignored ideals that Biko lived and died for.

” Here we’ve just come to say Biko one more time. Another year we are here. We want to say to Biko, our country, every year, gets into serious trouble and gets into a serious crisis as a result of mismanagement. As a result of veering far away from the Black Consciousness Movement. From the spirit that says this country was fought for.”

On this day, 11 September 1977, racist police put #SteveBiko in the back of a Land Rover and drove him for more than twelve hours from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria Central Prison – naked, chained and unconscious. #BikoMonth pic.twitter.com/vMRAwMaOKT

— SteveBikoFoundation (@BikoFoundation) September 11, 2019

Meanwhile, the president of Black Consciousness Movement Unity (BCMU) Professor Itumeleng Mosala says South Africa has regressed in the last 42 years. Professor Mosala spoke during the visit to the cell in which Steve Biko died.

Professor Mosala says today’s visit to Biko’s cell at the Kgosi Mampuru correctional services in Pretoria is to recommit loyalty to ideals that Biko lived and died for.

“We are here also to recommit ourselves to the vision of Azania that Steve spoke about. It is 25 years since our country took the flag independence. In those 25 years our people are in a worse condition, living conditions than they did before. The levels of poverty has escalated. More of our people are unemployed than they were in 1977 when Steve died.”