GQBERHA - Security Branch police were infamous for using excessive force and torture to intimidate those who opposed apartheid.
But decades later, some former officers who acted on behalf of the apartheid state continue to deny wrongdoing.
Former Captain Daniel Siebert is one of them.
He is being cross-examined at the inquest into the murder of Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko.
Siebert told the inquest that part of his duties was to quell tensions allegedly fuelled by anti-apartheid activists.
Such activism was viewed by the apartheid state as a declaration of war.
Biko was among those targeted by the Security Branch, and the circumstances surrounding his death are still being investigated almost five decades later.
READ: Biko family files papers to halt inquest into anti-apartheid activist's death
The State alleges that Siebert and other officers tortured Biko in the days before his death.
It disputes the former officers’ account that Biko was fatally injured during a scuffle with police.
The inquest is expected to hear from another person of interest, as well as former Security Branch policeman Jacobus Beneke and ex-apartheid spy Craig Williamson, who are expected to be called as the next witnesses.