August 18, 2025, marked 48 years since Black Consciousness father Steve Biko was arrested in a roadblock with his confidant and comrade, Peter Cyril Jones. The writer, a BC anti-apartheid activist and a contemporary of Biko, recounted the events of that fateful roadblock and that resulted in Biko’s assassination in police custody on September 12, 1977.
The writer was arrested prior to Biko and Jones by the notorious apartheid police who operated with impunity as they sought to quell Black rebellion against the tyranny of apartheid.
Madlavu elaborates as follows:
“The ‘Rooi Hell Prison‘ was the Port Elizabeth prison, referred to as Rooi Hell Prison, which was a pseudonym used to refer to the brutal violence meted out to the prison inmates. The name ‘Rooi Hell Prison’ was popularized outside the prison by former inmates.
Prior to comrade Steve Biko’s arrival, the Rooi Hell Prison was populated mainly by inmates who were arrested for the Kariega/Uitenhage June 16 1977 Uprisings in which I had also participated and led. The Kariega Students Uprising was also joined by two groups of the lumpen Proletariat or “gangsters” who were persuaded by us to stop fighting against each other but join the student march. On arrival at the Rooi Hell Prison, they informed the gangster members that they were arrested for Black Power activities.
The Apartheid Security Police or ‘Special Branch’ detained me at the “Rooi Hell prison”, prior to the detention of comrade Steve Biko but quickly removed me to a different prison, Kinkelboss.
Comrade Peter Jones was sent to Kinkelboss Prison situated on the periphery of Gqeberha as one travels from Makhanda. He joined me in the prison as he was in the adjacent prison cell, naked and unwashed. We alternated our “visits” of the Sanlam Offices, the place of torture and interrogation. Cde Steve Biko also participated in these “visits “. Subsequently, we would all be returned to our respective police station cells.
Comrade Steve Biko was, in effect, detained in three different prisons at Gqeberha before he was transferred to Tshwane. He spent a short period of time at the ‘Rooi Hell Prison’ and he was transferred to the second prison, Algoa Park Prison. He was then moved to the Warmer Prison.
This was consistent with the apartheid security police belief that a political detainee should not be kept in one prison environment for too long, especially those detained under section of the Terrorism Act. The political detainee should be kept in different prisons in order to ensure that his /her whereabouts are unknown and that he/she does not psychologically adapt to the prison environment. Thus, the movement from one prison to the other was a form of psychological trauma.
Comrade Peter Jones was also detained in different prisons during that period. He was transferred from Kinkelboss to Algoa Park Prison and I was also shifted to another prison.
