Tim Jenkin has been a propagandist, writer, anti-Political Party activist in South Africa since the 1970s. He gained fame after the publication of a book about the real story of his escape from prison.

Biography of Tim Jenkin

Full name is Timothy Peter Jenkin. He was born in 1948, the exact date is unknown. Hometown – Cape Town, South Africa. There he graduated from a public school for boys. From the age of 17 he was engaged in various activities. Miraculously did not get drafted into the army.

At 22, Tim goes to England, where he works in a fiberglass manufactory. Working conditions greatly affected health, and wages were disproportionately low. Such injustice has become key in the biography of the hero. He begins to study social law and gradually realizes the essence of the political system of his native country.

Indigenous white-skinned South Africans by default took the apartheid system for granted. According to Wikipedia, the South African National Party has been active since 1948. Therefore, Jenkin, being brought up in this ideology, simply did not know about the scale of the tragedy of the black population.

In 1973, Timothy received a degree in sociology from the University of Cape Town. There he met Stephen Bernard Lee. They soon joined the banned movement of the ANC, the African National Congress, whose mission was to overthrow the incumbent party. Friends have been living in London for over a year. While working as social workers, the activists underground study propaganda tactics at the ANC.

Since 1975, Jenkin has been inventing a new method of distributing leaflets based on a firework-like explosion. Such an effect draws the attention of the crowd as hundreds of pamphlets rise into the sky calling for liberation from the oppressive regime. Together with Steve, he worked first in a garage, then in a rented apartment. Timothy’s arsenal was paper, stationery, a typewriter, and a copy machine. Until 1978, the Protestant improved his developments and, on the instructions of the ANC, he himself took to the streets of Cape Town and Johannesburg to plant leaflet bombs.

The escape of Tim Jenkin and Steve Lee – a true story

In March 1978, the activists are detained by the police. In the summer, Jenkin was sentenced to 12 years, Steve – to 8. Direct participation in 18 publications against the apartheid government was proved. After the trial, the revolutionaries were placed in a block for political prisoners in the Pretoria prison in the city of Tshwan. As he crossed the threshold of solitary confinement, Tim thought, “In our 30s, we’ll be locked up when others get married and have kids.” Also in the description of the story, he recalls beatings and painful interrogations.

From the first day of imprisonment, the Protestant began to plan an escape. The Pretoria Central Jail was distinguished by its many vestibules, doors and stairs. The buildings were surrounded by watchtowers with guards and trained dogs. Of the many versions, Timothy chooses to open a dozen doors and exit to freedom through the main entrance. The pair of ANC activists are joined by Alexander Mumbaris, who has already served 5 years for similar violations.

Jenkin had prior experience in making wire picks and knew how locks worked. Therefore, the task was to make keys. He independently measures the depth and size of the keyhole of his cell, and he carves the key out of wood in the workshop for prisoners. And all this is literally under the nose of the guard. In a thermos he takes out blanks, a file and a little glue. From the words of a political prisoner: “During the inspection, my heart was beating wildly.”

The wooden key did not fit immediately, but the file helped to fit it to the exact shape. When the first door of Jenkin’s cell was finally opened – “I was literally stunned,” the hero recalls. But behind it was another one, as well as 13 more barriers along with the doors of Steve and Alexander. In preparation for the escape, the convicts made several exploratory forays. After 4:30 p.m., there was almost no one left in the cell block, except for the guard on duty. And the relaxed behavior of one of the sergeants – Vermeulen – successfully contributed to the cause.

During one of the trainings, Tim and Alexander hid under the stairs. They were sitting in a small closet, holding the doors with sweaty fingertips, and a caretaker was passing 1 meter away from them. At some point, the doors slipped and opened. In an interview for the documentary, the activist described his fear as “the scariest feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.”

But success accompanied the trio of fugitives until the day of the mission. It happened on December 11, 1979. Practiced actions and a whole set of different keys delivered the prisoners to the 10th cherished door. At this point, Vermeulen was distracted by Denis Goldberg, chattering his teeth with a discussion of rugby and family. All political prisoners supported the fleeing Protestants, but no one wanted to get 5 years on top of the term in the Pretoria prison.

An important point of this story was the clothing of Tim and the accomplices of the escape. It took them a long time to choose the right items from the incoming cleaning rags. As a result, we managed to collect quite tolerable pants, shirts and caps. They used the rest of the fabric to create mannequins that acted as sleeping prisoners in their cells.

The last door before the release did not yield to any of Jenkin’s handmade keys. Disputes and strong fear were stopped by Mumbaris, who simply cut the material with a chisel to the locking mechanism. Once the three were outside, they quickly hailed a taxi and headed to one of the ANC’s secret hideouts. The enterprising Timothy managed to hide the money in a tube of toothpaste even at the stage of the arrest. According to another version, he carried the savings in his body. Without finances, it would be impossible to hide from the prison walls so quickly.

The film “Escape from Pretoria”

In 1987, Jenkin released the first manuscript with the story of his exploit. He describes that in order to achieve a goal, an activist can even become a locksmith. In 2003, the book was rewritten, expanded, and became known as Inside Out: The Pretoria Prison Escape. Several film studios and directors took on the film adaptation. But it was only at the beginning of 2019 that the news about the completion of filming by Francis Annan based on real events was covered.

Daniel Radcliffe has been cast as Tim, while Daniel Webber has been cast as Steve Lee. The picture will not accurately convey every detail of the 18-month preparation for the flight. But Jenkin himself, present on the set, controlled the main episodes. In an interview, Tim noted that the wooden keys themselves were not preserved in the original. But the film will use the very chisel with which Alexander literally saved the political prisoners’ plan.

“Escape from Pretoria”, about part of the biography of activists, launched on March 1, 2020 on the screens of the UK and other countries. For 13 days of hire – an international rating of 6.4 according to KinoPoisk. In Russia, the release of the film began on April 2.

Personal life

Open sources do not write about the marital status and the presence of Jenkin’s children. When reviewing personality on Wikipedia, there is a mention of a wife named Robin. But how the fate of Tim’s marriage after prison is unknown. In 2013, Canada produced Breakthrough, a documentary series on the National Geographic Channel about great escape stories. In episode 7 of season 2, Timothy himself talks about the details. But there is also no mention of personal moments of life.

Tim Jenkin now

After his release, the activist moves to Europe, from where he continues to fight against racial pressure. He becomes close to Nelson Mandela, inventing an entirely new encryption system for transmitting information. Jenkin’s political biography also includes the creation of an elementary computer. The opponent of apartheid devoted his whole life to working with messages and electronic information. Since 2003, he has been listed as the founder of one of the global communication systems based on the Internet. There is no activity data for 2020, except for participation in the production of the film Escape from Pretoria.