The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

2012 marks the 35th anniversary of the brutal murder in police detention of the founding father of the Black Consciousness Movement Bantubonke Steve Biko. AZAPO has consistently over the years celebrated the life of Biko, reflected on his legacy and contribution to the South African society. This year AZAPO has lined up a number of activities to mark what is now known as the BC Week (06 – 12 September). BC Week denotes the time within which Biko had to endure the callousness and brutality of the racist apartheid police. 12th September marks the end of BC Week as it is the day Comrade Biko met his gruesome and untimely death at the hands of the racist South African police.

On this 35th anniversary of the brutal murder of Bantubonke Biko, AZAPO invokes Biko’s spirit through the theme “Biko for Marikana: A Call to Rise Up!” This theme is appropriate because it brings into sharp focus police brutality and the callousness of the ANC-led government, which has internalised its newfound role of “Mantshingilane” of a coterie of white and “black” (BBBEE) capitalist class. 18 years into democracy we have a democratic government that unleashes lethal force against its citizens in defence of the interests of foreign white capitalists and their “BBBEE-enriched” black partners at Lonmin mine. “Biko for Marikana: A Call to Rise Up” reminds us that just like Biko, the black mineworkers at Marikana were killed simply because they rose up and asserted their right to dignity. The manner in which both Biko and the Marikana martyrs died is a catalyst for revolution. Indeed as Biko once observed, “It is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die”.

AZAPO believes that Marikana might just be the tipping point in the face of rising black inequality, poverty and political arrogance of the ANC-led government. In more ways than one the Marikana massacre confirms AZAPO’s suspicion, that is, black life continues to be cheap even in the democratic post-1994 South Africa. It is against this background that AZAPO makes a clarion call to all South Africans, especially to the poor and exploited, to rise up and invoke the spirit of Biko and the slayed Marikana mineworkers. To be fearless and demand dignity, respect and not to forget that “BLACK MAN (PERSON) YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!”
The highlights of the BC Week are the main Biko Memorial Lecture at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) and the Biko for Marikana Silent Protest to be staged along Steve Biko Road in Tshwane. The details of these two major events are as follows:

The Biko Memorial Lecture will be held at NMMU on Wednesday, 12 September 2012; 17h30 for 18h00 at the South Campus Auditorium. The theme of the lecture is “Rise Biko Rise for the sake of our Country: The Quest for a true Humanity”. The main speaker is Prof Itumeleng Mosala who was Biko’s contemporary and comrade. Together with Biko, Prof Mosala, a past President of AZAPO was and is still inspired by Black Power, which is synonymous with Black Consciousness. BC inspires him and many black people in our communities to pick up the cudgels of struggle and confront head-on challenges in our society brought about by liberalism and bourgeois democracy.

The Biko for Marikana Silent Protest will be on 12 September 2012 along the Steve Biko Road in Tshwane (Pretoria). The protest will be from 08h00 to 12h00. AZAPO members, supporters and members of the public will be there in numbers. The Biko for Marikana Protest is AZAPO’s national day of solidarity with the Marikana mineworkers. AZAPO has since declared September 12 National Day of Solidarity with the mineworkers and bereaved families in Marikana! AZAPO therefore calls upon all South Africans to spend 12 minutes between 08h00 and 12h00 remembering and praying for the Marikana Mineworkers and their families as a form of solidarity. As a country we should never, ever have another Marikana.