![]() 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. 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. In July, four ANC operatives including author Jeremy Cronin were arrested doing similar work in Cape Town and were given prison sentences. Jenkin went to London at the request of the ANC in May 1976, while Lee continued to plant leaflet bombs around Johannesburg. Lee worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, while Jenkin ran the " cell" on his own in Cape Town. ![]() He successfully distributed leaflets this way on Cape Town's Grand Parade. Īfter the success of their first mission, Jenkin worked on refining the mechanism by adding a triggering system to the leaflet bomb, so that they didn't have to be close to it when it went off. After achieving this mission, managing to distribute hundreds of leaflets by means of several leaflet bombs, the text of which is reproduced in Jenkin's memoir. 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 and unity in the liberation struggle via a leaflet bomb (using a new design developed by Jenkin) in Johannesburg, close to the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March. Jenkin worked as a researcher for the Institute for Social Development at the University of the Western Cape, which was a university for people classified by the apartheid government as Coloured. 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. After acceptance by the ANC, he and Lee received training from the ANC in various tactics, in particular how to spread their propaganda material in the form of leaflets, and how to set up communication and financial structures. While awaiting clearance for membership, Jenkin worked as a social worker at a reform school in Swindon. In February 1974, Jenkin and Lee left the country in order to join the ANC in London, with the intention of helping to bring about change in South Africa. During this time they learnt of the activities of the African National Congress (ANC), which was a banned organisation in South Africa. Through reading, including material banned by the government, they came to see the "naked reality" of apartheid and the undemocratic nature of the government, and felt a burning desire to effect positive change, which, Jenkin concluded, was only possible using unconstitutional means under the current regime. They both found their sociology course disappointing, as the material reinforced the status quo of the apartheid system. They soon became friends and both of them sought out the literature banned by the apartheid government, devouring, photocopying it and swapping it with other students. Jenkin met Lee in a sociology class at UCT. Īt 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. ![]() ![]() 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". This also led to learning more about the injustice in his own country. He left for the UK in 1970, where, working in a fibreglass factory under poor working conditions and little pay, found the whole system unjust and developed an interest in sociology. Īfter leaving school, he was lucky enough to avoid 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. ![]() Jenkin was born in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys' Prep and Boys' High School, matriculating aged 17. ![]()
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