Tim Jenkin

Timothy Peter Jenkin (born 1948) is a South African writer, former anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner.

He left for the UK in 1970, where, working in a fibreglass factory under poor working conditions and little pay, found the system unjust and developed an interest in sociology.

This led him to learning more about the injustice in his own country.

He later wrote that he had "grown up a 'normal' complacent white South African" who "unthinkingly accepted the system and for twenty-one years never questioned it".

At the end of 1970 Jenkin enrolled at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science degree at the end of 1973.

Jenkin met Stephen Lee in a sociology class at UCT.

They became friends and, in a South African version of Samizdat, Jenkins and Lee sought out literature banned by the ruling National Party.

They then photocopied it and swapped it with other students.

They both found their sociology course disappointing, as the material reinforced the status quo of apartheid.

Through reading material banned by the government, they came to see the "naked reality" of apartheid and the undemocratic behavior of the ruling party, and felt a burning desire to effect positive change, which, Jenkin concluded, was only possible using unconstitutional means under the current regime.

During this time they learnt of the activities of the African National Congress (ANC), which was an illegal organisation in South Africa.

In February 1974, Jenkin and Lee left the country to join the ANC in London, with the intention of helping to bring about change in South Africa.

Here, Jenkin met his future wife Robin.

While awaiting clearance for membership, Jenkin worked as a social worker at a reform school in Swindon.

After acceptance by the ANC, he and Lee received training from the ANC in various tactics, in particular how to spread their propaganda leaflets, and how to set up communication and financial structures.

Upon return to Cape Town in July 1975, Lee and Jenkin bought a typewriter, duplicator and stationery to print and post pamphlets and leased first a garage and then a tiny apartment.

Jenkin worked as a researcher for the Institute for Social Development at the University of the Western Cape, a university for South Africans of mixed racial ancestry, or Coloureds.

Along with Lee, Jenkin was charged with "producing and distributing 18 different pamphlets on behalf of banned organisations" including the South African Communist Party, the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, from 1975 to 1978, and urging people to join the liberation movement.

In March 1976, Lee went to Johannesburg to look for work, and the ANC coincidentally sent them both on their first mission, to disperse leaflets urging support for the ANC via a leaflet bomb (using a new design developed by Jenkin) in Johannesburg, close to the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March.

They achieved this mission, managing to distribute hundreds of leaflets by means of several leaflet bombs, the text of which is reproduced in Jenkin's memoir.

After the success of their first mission, Jenkin worked on refining the mechanism by adding a triggering system to the leaflet bomb, so that they did not have to be close to it when it went off.

He successfully distributed leaflets this way on Cape Town's Grand Parade.

Lee worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, while Jenkin ran the "cell" on his own in Cape Town.

Jenkin went to London at the request of the ANC in May 1976, while Lee continued to plant leaflet bombs around Johannesburg.

In July, four ANC operatives including author Jeremy Cronin were arrested doing similar work in Cape Town and were given prison sentences.

Undeterred, Jenkin continued the work in Cape Town, finding a new premises and regularly changing their printing equipment, and both carried out further leaflet bombings in Johannesburg.

There were a few worrying signs that Jenkin was being monitored, but he went to London to see Robin for six weeks and returned without incident.

In September, he and Lee hung a 10-metre-long banner with the words "ANC LIVES" from a high building in the centre of Cape Town, along with a timed device which distributed hundreds of leaflets over the crowds below.

Lee moved back to Cape Town in December after enrolling in a master's degree in sociology, and the two continued their undercover work, but unbeknownst to them they were by this time under surveillance by the Security Branch of the South African Police.

At 3am the morning of 2 March 1978, Jenkin and Lee were both arrested, after being seen moving their printing equipment into their own dwelling.

They were never told how the security police got onto them, and Jenkin concluded that it must have been the result of meticulous police work and long surveillance.

They were taken to Caledon Square Police Station, the head office of the Security Branch in Cape Town, where they were separated, interrogated and put into cells, without being informed of the charges or their rights.

This was legal under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act, which allowed detention without trial for up to 60 days, and was extendable.

Lee made an escape attempt and nearly succeeded.

After a spell in the notorious John Vorster Square in Johannesburg, they were returned to Cape Town and after four weeks, allowed to see family, and held at Pollsmoor Prison as they awaited trial.

After Lee's father brought him a copy of the book Papillon, the book inspired them to seriously consider the prospect of escape and they concentrated on rigorous observations of the world around them.

The trial in the Cape Town Supreme Court went from 6 to 15 June 1978.

He is best known for his 1979 escape from Pretoria Local Prison (part of the Pretoria Central Prison complex), along with Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris.

Jenkin was born in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys' Prep and Boys' High School, matriculating aged 17.

After leaving school, he avoided conscription into the South African Defence Force, and worked at a variety of jobs for two years, with no particular interest in anything except motorcycle racing.