Workers pay tribute to Biko on 40th anniversary

[caption id="attachment_221800" align="aligncenter" width="595"] Azapo national chairman Nelvis Qekema stands in the room on the sixth floor of the Old Sanlam Building where Steve Biko was held
Picture: Werner Hills[/caption]

Construction to halt for moment of silence at notorious Sanlam Building

Construction workers at the notorious Old Sanlam Building will observe a moment’s silence today to mark the 40th anniversary of Steve Biko’s death.

The building – now called Steve Biko House – where the black consciousness leader and others were jailed, together with the Old Mill and Mumford buildings, will be transformed into social housing.

The R86-million project in Central started last month and is headed by the Qhama Social Housing Institute (QSHI).

Project manager Mark Watson said construction was on track after the building was handed over in July last year.

“It is the early stages of the project. We are in the demolition phase and everything is going well. The idea is that it will be occupied from March,” he said.

Watson said the demolition phase had proved to be challenging as the Old Mill building had been declared a heritage site.

“One of the main challenges is that these are old buildings, and we have a heritage building and we have to contain that,” he said

“We are stripping the entire buildings out. These buildings were designed in the 1950s for office space, so we can’t just build normal walls as they are not designed for that.”

He said a moment’s silence would be observed by construction workers at teatime today. Steve Biko House and the Mumford building are set to have floors added to their structure, while the Old Mill building will have a basement built in.

The buildings will collectively offer 220 housing units.

The sixth floor of Steve Biko House, however, is expected to be turned into a museum.

Also part of the plan are two-bedroom units, an African library, a coffee shop, and a prayer room in Room 601 where Biko was held.

But Azapo chairman Nelvis Qekema said yesterday the organisation would engage the city on pursuing a process to have Steve Biko House gazetted as a national heritage site.

“We feel that Biko is under-recognised,” Qekema said. “He studied at the University of Natal but it is still not named after him, yet Nelson Mandela University is named after Nelson Mandela who did not even study there.”

Qekema said they felt they were not properly consulted on the plans, after they struggled yesterday to identify the cell where Biko was held.

Recalling the days leading up to Biko’s death, Qekema told how he was arrested and held at the Walmer Police Station before being moved to the Old Sanlam Building where he was tortured by apartheid police.

A group of Azapo supporters also held a short cleansing ceremony yesterday, ahead of a memorial lecture by Temple University Professor Molefi Kete Asante at Nelson Mandela University today.

Biko, a pioneer of the black consciousness movement, died 40 years ago today in Pretoria.