Brixton’s Ritzy cinema is to screen a powerful documentary drama about ordinary people from Britain and elsewhere who risked all to aid the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
Oliver Tambo and his London Recruits tells the story of how the African Nation Congress (ANC), which was leading the struggle in South Africa itself, recruited volunteers in London in the 1960s and 1970s to travel to South Africa as tourists and carry out undercover missions.
Following the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo was leading the ANC from exile.
The Ritzy showing, at 7pm on Thursday (21 November), is the premiere of a “people’s release” programme for the film, bypassing traditional mainstream cinema distribution gatekeepers.
It is also a fundraiser for Action for Southern Africa, a successor organisation to the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
A Q&A session will follow the Ritzy screening with London recruits, the filmmaker and other guests.
Brixton connection
One of the volunteers was Brixton pensioner Gordon Hutchins, who passed away in 2022 and was remembered at a ceremony attended by a representative from the South African High Commission in London
One evening in the summer of 1971, Gordon received a phone call. Would he like to go on a two-week holiday to South Africa? He and dozens of other brave Londoners agreed.
Gordon was a member of the engineering union and active in the Boycott South Africa movement. The ANC was under constant surveillance, and it was difficult for Black South Africans to travel freely, the Pass Laws restricting movement, but white people from outside South Africa could.
Gordon and his colleague Bob Condon agreed to go under cover. Each team was unaware that there were others, and they were all sworn to secrecy. Many kept that secret for more than 20 years.
Gorden and Bob travelled by plane to Port Elizabeth, via Johannesburg. Their suitcases were filled with normal holiday kit – but hidden in secret compartments were the timers and leaflets to make “bucket bombs”. These explosive tubes for launching large quantities leaflets were often hidden in Fortnum and Mason’s biscuit tins
Gordon says: “In all, we set off six ‘bucket bombs’ in various places.” Their main target was the Ford Motor works, where many Black workers were employed.
The leaflets were in Xhosa and addressed to black South Africans. It was a call to continue resistance to apartheid in South Africa. It also puzzled the secret police who thought the ANC’s organisation had been smashed.
During their holiday, Gordon says; “On our strolls around town we noticed cars parked with plain clothes police observing all and sundry. It became a game between me and Bob, to see who could spot three before lunch. Not too difficult.”
Gordon’s story and those of other London Recruits were told a book, London Recruits, the Secret War Against Apartheid, that was published in 2012.
