A CHANCE encounter with an advert of the sale of Steve Biko's postmortem report by a friend of the icon's eldest son helped save the historical, four-decade-old document.
Nkosinathi Biko, the chief executive of the Steve Biko Foundation (SBF), got wind of the sale, scheduled for yesterday, after he received a tip-off from his friend, according to SBF spokesman Thando Sipuye.
Nkosinathi then contacted his lawyers to stop the sale of the late Black Consciousness Movement leader's postmortem report from proceeding.
"The lawyers spoke to Clive Steele, who was not willing to hand over the autopsy report," Sipuye said.
Steele and his sister, Susan Elizabeth Steele, are children of Maureen Steele, the former personal assistant of Dr Jonathan Gluckman, the pathologist appointed by the Biko family to be present during the postmortem. Yesterday, the South Gauteng High Court stopped the Steele siblings and Westgate Walding Auctioneers from handing the 43-page report to anyone other than the Biko family and from altering it and copying it.
The Bikos were represented by Darren Olivier and Ian Learmonth of law firm, Adams and Adams, and advocates Paola Cirone and George Bizos, who was present during the inquest into Biko's death.
The Steeles are described as vendors by Westgate Walding Auctioneers, which was selling the postmortem report for between R70000 and R100000.
Westgate Walding Auctioneers described the report as "a unique document of the struggle era of great historical importance that gives the full details of the autopsy/post mortem. It is unknown if another copy of this document exists".
Biko's postmortem report was to be sold with another struggle icon's postmortem affidavit. The sale of Ahmed Timol's postmortem affidavit, which was valued between R20000 and R25000, was also stopped by the court.
Timol was the first political detainee to die in detention in October 1971.
Apartheid police at the notorious John Vorster Square Police Station claimed he had rushed to a window, opened it and jumped to his death.
Sipuye said the Steeles "felt a sense of entitlement" to the postmortem report. "But we don't want to go to court. We hope their conscience will prevail and [that they will] see the importance of returning the report to its rightful owners," he said.
Ironically, the struggle icons' historical documents were to be sold with the political biography of the architect of apartheid Hendrik Verwoerd.
Attempts to contact the Steeles and the auction house were unsuccessful.
Biko's postmortem was to be sold for R70000
A CHANCE encounter with an advert of the sale of Steve Biko's postmortem report by a friend of the icon's eldest son helped save the historical, four-decade-old document.
Nkosinathi Biko, the chief executive of the Steve Biko Foundation (SBF), got wind of the sale, scheduled for yesterday, after he received a tip-off from his friend, according to SBF spokesman Thando Sipuye.
Nkosinathi then contacted his lawyers to stop the sale of the late Black Consciousness Movement leader's postmortem report from proceeding.
"The lawyers spoke to Clive Steele, who was not willing to hand over the autopsy report," Sipuye said.
Steele and his sister, Susan Elizabeth Steele, are children of Maureen Steele, the former personal assistant of Dr Jonathan Gluckman, the pathologist appointed by the Biko family to be present during the postmortem. Yesterday, the South Gauteng High Court stopped the Steele siblings and Westgate Walding Auctioneers from handing the 43-page report to anyone other than the Biko family and from altering it and copying it.
The Bikos were represented by Darren Olivier and Ian Learmonth of law firm, Adams and Adams, and advocates Paola Cirone and George Bizos, who was present during the inquest into Biko's death.
The Steeles are described as vendors by Westgate Walding Auctioneers, which was selling the postmortem report for between R70000 and R100000.
Westgate Walding Auctioneers described the report as "a unique document of the struggle era of great historical importance that gives the full details of the autopsy/post mortem. It is unknown if another copy of this document exists".
Biko's postmortem report was to be sold with another struggle icon's postmortem affidavit. The sale of Ahmed Timol's postmortem affidavit, which was valued between R20000 and R25000, was also stopped by the court.
Timol was the first political detainee to die in detention in October 1971.
Apartheid police at the notorious John Vorster Square Police Station claimed he had rushed to a window, opened it and jumped to his death.
Sipuye said the Steeles "felt a sense of entitlement" to the postmortem report. "But we don't want to go to court. We hope their conscience will prevail and [that they will] see the importance of returning the report to its rightful owners," he said.
Ironically, the struggle icons' historical documents were to be sold with the political biography of the architect of apartheid Hendrik Verwoerd.
Attempts to contact the Steeles and the auction house were unsuccessful.
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