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Escape from Pretoria Escape from Pretoria by Tim Jenkin How did three political prisoners break out of one of South Africa’s top security prisons? Angry and embarrassed by the escape, the apartheid Security Branch forced one of the warders to say he had been bribed to help them. But the truth was quite different. Escape from Pretoria shows how patience, single-mindedness and meticulous attention to detail got the prisoners out of their cells and through 14 locked doors...to freedom. It is, however, much more than just an escape story. It is an account of how a white South African became conscious of the injustice on which his privileged life was based and chose to throw in his lot with the oppressed black majority of South Africa by joining the liberation struggle. (Cover description from the original book). Escape from Pretoria was first published by Kliptown Books, London, in April 1987. The book is now distributed by David Philip Publishers (Pty), PO Box 23408, Claremont 7735, South Africa. Copyright © Tim Jenkin ii Contents Preface Breakout!....................................................................................................................... 1 Part One: Getting In 1. Recruitment ................................................................................................................... 3 2. Underground................................................................................................................ 16 3. Detention ..................................................................................................................... 32 4. Awaiting Trial ............................................................................................................. 43 5. Trial ............................................................................................................................. 53 Part Two: Getting Out 6. We Meet the Comrades............................................................................................... 65 7. First Approaches ......................................................................................................... 75 8. The Escape Group Expands ........................................................................................ 86 9. First Plans.................................................................................................................... 96 10. First Escape Date....................................................................................................... 106 11. The Second Date ....................................................................................................... 115 12. Stage One .................................................................................................................. 128 13. Stage Two.................................................................................................................. 139 14. Another Stage Two – or Out? ................................................................................... 152 15. Escape! ...................................................................................................................... 158 Part Three: Getting Away 16. The Long Walk.......................................................................................................... 165 17. Swaziland, Mozambique........................................................................................... 174 18. Angola, Zambia, Tanzania ........................................................................................ 182 19. Consequences............................................................................................................ 189 PREFACE Breakout! We stood staring at the last obstacle between us and freedom. How was it that this miserable little door would not yield to our persuasions? With minimal effort we’d opened 14 other doors to get to it, most of them the giant prison steel doors and grilles, yet this last one, an ordinary wooden door with an ordinary house lock, had decided to put a halt to 18 months’ worth of planning and preparation. We would have none of it! If it would not give in to our gentler persuasions there was only one other option – force! Alex asked for the chisel. He was going to dig out the wood from behind the locking plate on the doorframe and then when he’d removed enough he would be able to bend it back so that the bolt could clear it when he pulled the door open. I was thinking that maybe we should make our way back to our cells and try again another day. If we did not get the door open before the sentry came on duty in the street outside it would be the end of the road for us. We would not be able to make another attempt, as the damaged doorpost would be evidence that there had been an escape attempt and they would strengthen the prison’s existing security to make it impossible to get out. But the others insisted there was only one direction we would be going – out! I flinched as Alex dug the point of the chisel into the well-varnished wooden frame and a giant chip of wood fell onto the doormat. Now the prison authorities would know which way we had got out; our dream of having pulled off the perfect escape was no more. We had hoped to leave our captors completely confounded as to how three long-term ‘terrorists’ had spirited themselves out of their cells and out of one of South Africa’s reputedly most secure prisons. Alex furiously carried on chiselling as we watched in terror. We knew that the sentry normally came on duty at six and it was now approaching that time: it was more than an hour since lockup at four thirty. The pile of chippings on the floor looked greater than the hole out of which they came but the locking plate could still not be bent back far enough to allow the bolt to pass. Several times Alex tried to force it back with the large screwdriver we’d brought along from the workshop but each time it just slipped and made a frightening noise. Each time it happened we were sure the night-warder, who was sitting less than 20 metres away and the guard on the catwalk just 5 metres above, had heard it. But nothing happened. We prepared ourselves for departure. We pulled off our gloves and face masks and put on our running shoes: once we were out we’d have to get off the prison terrain, out of Pretoria and out of the country as quickly as possible. We knew they’d treat us as hunted fugitives and that there would be a nationwide search; we knew that if we got caught our already long sentences would be infinitely extended. Eventually Alex had removed sufficient wood to allow him to bend the locking plate back far enough. He grasped the door handle and gave it a sharp yank. With a loud grating sound the bolt scraped past the plate and the door swung open. The sweet air of freedom wafted in. Alex cautiously looked up toward the end of the catwalk above the door to see if the guard was in view. There was nobody – the guard had conveniently taken a walk down to the far end. Alex boldly stepped outside and signalled to us to follow him. I was the next out and then Stephen, who pulled the door closed after him. It did not close properly on account of the still protruding bolt, but it did not matter at that moment – we were out. 1 After making sure the coast was clear, we walked down the few steps leading from the door out of which we had just emerged and stepped into the warm summer’s sun in the street. We were free. We saw our hours, days, months, years of boredom, frustration and isolation behind us. And ahead, freedom... 2 PART ONE: GETTING IN 1 Recruitment The question is frequently asked how white South Africans can abandon all the privileges that are theirs for the taking and choose instead to become revolutionaries and side with the oppressed. For outsiders it is an impossibility: South Africa for white people is the land of milk and honey where they can expect a standard of living probably unmatched by any other country in the world. A beautiful country with such wealth that it literally oozes out of the ground and such an abundance of cheap labour that virtually every white family can afford a servant. A life of luxury, pleasure, holidays, travel, sunshine and sport. Good jobs, good salaries, little prospect of unemployment, good homes, good education... you name it. Why would anyone reject all this and choose instead a life of persecution: detention, prison, banning, ostracism, exile? Hatred of the system of society under which they live and rebellion against it are not natural responses for white South Africans as they are for blacks. They are responses that have to be learned: from others, from unique personal experiences or from books. For most whites breaking free of the web of privilege and racism and finding the route toward enlightenment is not easy. The apartheid system, through the rewards it bestows on those who accept it and through its insidious propaganda, does not breed white dissidents. But despite all the forces ranged against them, some white South Africans do manage to break loose and find their way into the camp of those who believe in a non-racial democratic South Africa. Some are fortunate to have enlightened parents and so never become deeply ensnared in the barbs of racism; they break free easily. Others may meet someone who influences their lives or have personal experiences that help them to break loose. Most whites who do manage to see the light, however, reach that position through the intellectual route. It cannot really be any other way, for whites are not usually at the
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