Inquest Inevitably Futile

In form the inquest seemed fair. Biko's family was represented and the play revolves around the grilling their lawyer gives various witnesses. But no matter how blatant the inconsistencies and half truths were, it became increasingly obvious that there was no way culpibility on behalf of the Security Police was going to be proved.

The most frightening aspect of the play was perhaps the arrogant power of the Security Police. Goosen, head of Security Police in Port Elizabeth, was freely able to state that he considered himself above the restraints of statutes. In other words, as far as detainees were concerned, his word was law. He didn't even have to present a watertight case to the court as the only witnesses to what really happened were his own men.

Perhaps the saddest thing conveyed by The Biko Inquest is not the fact of' the nature of Biko's death, but the way in which the oppressive machinery degrades humanity in general, the oppressed and the oppressor.

The doctors who checked Biko during his detention prior to his death were more willing to make themselves look like incompetent fools than to stand up for the truth, or reveal the pressure they were under. Even the Security Police can be pitied in their exhibition of blatant hypocrisy and lack of any feeling for the dignity of a fellow human. The South African political and social system must be rotten indeed if it can produce people who can live easily with such injustice and degradation.