THE LONDON RECRUITS
A secret anti-apartheid mission nearly sank before it began
AGROUP of British men and women undertook a dangerous secret mission to South Africa in the 1970s to detonate non-lethal bombs to build awareness of the injustice of apartheid.
Their fascinating story will soon be captured in a documentary called London Recruits.
They smuggled in propaganda material against the apartheid government and set off leaflet bombs.
Welsh company Barefoot Rascals, the producers of the film, are asking for people from Durban who witnessed the occurrences, to share their experiences.
The secret mission was headed by former minister of intelligence and anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils.
He spent time in exile in London and convinced more than 50 Britons from the Young Communist League, as well as a few students, to undertake the mission.
He prepared them to execute the mission, teaching them how to smuggle the material in secret compartments in their luggage and make their way through customs without creating suspicion.
In the country their tasks included playing audio messages from exiled leaders, planting leaflet bombs at busy public venues and putting up banners at landmark buildings.
In Durban, two British men arrived on August 2, 1971.
They checked into a hotel in the CBD and began preparing their leaflet bombs in their rooms. Denis Walsh, 67, and Graeme Whyte, 65, were 20 and 22 at the time.
They were determined to make a difference and end the apartheid regime. As members of the Young Communist League in London, they would not give up without a fight.
“We arrived here and began preparing our leaflet bombs after we were taught how to do it by Ronnie. We were to set off six of these bombs at various spots around Durban.
“While we were preparing them in our room, a maid came in and saw what we were up to. We were terrified at first and thought she would tell on us. Because she was black, we were a little relieved and knew she might be sympathetic to our cause,” said Walsh.
Walsh and Whyte then sat her down and explained their mission to her.
“Nobody knew about our mission besides this woman. She was the only other person who knew about what we were up to in Durban because we told her everything.
“She was young and beautiful and didn’t say much. She didn’t tell on us – which resulted in our mission being successful. We later bought her a watch to thank her for her co-operation,” said Walsh.
Now, Walsh and Whyte are hoping to find the woman so that she too, can be a part of the documentary.
Between August 2 and 11, after making their bombs, they successfully let them off at six spots around Durban, including at the railway station and outside the city hall. The last was let off outside this newspaper’s offices in Field Street.
“We did this to attract the attention of the media. The next day, a number of articles were published not just in Durban, but throughout the country. The Sunday Tribune also published an article that week,” said Walsh.
Whyte said some of his fondest memories of the Durban mission was waking up in the morning and listening to the radio news. “That’s when I realised Denis and I were not alone. We were actually part of something really big. We were the top story on the national news and that gave me enormous satisfaction.
“On the day itself I felt a great sense of relief when the last bucket bomb was planted and we heard it go off.
“The feeling that we had done it after all those weeks of preparation, waiting and nervous tension was really what I had been looking forward to. Hearing the sirens wail as the police roared around town looking for us was amazing,” said Whyte.
He said when the maid in the hotel read their leaflet, and looked at him and said ‘you are fighting for us’, it helped him believe others would feel the same way and they would get great satisfaction from knowing the ANC was out there still fighting.
“There was something in her tone of voice that made me feel she understood what we were doing and that there was a real need for people to feel that people were still fighting and it was not all over as the government was telling everyone,” said Whyte.
Kasrils said he was excited about the documentary being produced and hoped more South Africans who witnessed the missions would come forward and tell their stories.
If you were one of the people who saw the leaflet bombs go off around Durban, contact the Sunday Tribune.