He grasped the doorhandle and gave it a sharp yank. We knew they’d treat us as hunted fugitives and that there would be a nationwide search we knew that if we got caught our already long sentences would be infinitely extended.Įventually Alex had removed sufficient wood to allow him to bend the locking plate back far enough. We pulled off our gloves and face masks and put on our running shoes: once we were out we’d have to get off the prison terrain, out of Pretoria and out of the country as quickly as possible. Each time it happened we were sure the night-warder, who was sitting less than 20 metres away and the guard on the catwalk just 5 metres above, had heard it. Several times Alex tried to force it back with the large screwdriver we’d brought along from the workshop but each time it just slipped and made a frightening noise. The pile of chippings on the floor looked greater than the hole out of which they came but the locking plate could still not be bent back far enough to allow the bolt to pass. We knew that the sentry normally came on duty at six and it was now approaching that time: it was more than an hour since lockup at four thirty. We had hoped to leave our captors completely confounded as to how three long-term ‘terrorists’ had spirited themselves out of their cells and out of one of South Africa’s reputedly most secure prisons.Īlex furiously carried on chiselling as we watched in terror. Now the prison authorities would know which way we had got out our dream of having pulled off the perfect escape was no more. I flinched as Alex dug the point of the chisel into the well-varnished wooden frame and a giant chip of wood fell onto the doormat.
But the others insisted there was only one direction we would be going – out! We would not be able to make another attempt as the damaged doorpost would be evidence that there had been an escape attempt and they would strengthen the prison’s existing security to make it impossible to get out. If we did not get the door open before the sentry came on duty in the street outside it would be the end of the road for us. I was thinking that maybe we should make our way back to our cells and try again another day. He was going to dig out the wood from behind the locking plate on the doorframe and then when he’d removed enough he would be able to bend it back so that the bolt could clear it when he pulled the door open. We would have none of it! If it would not give in to our gentler persuasions there was only one other option – force!Īlex asked for the chisel. How was it that this miserable little door would not yield to our persuasions? With minimal effort we’d opened 14 other doors to get to it, most of them the giant prison steel doors and grilles, yet this last one, an ordinary wooden door with an ordinary house lock, had decided to put a halt to 18 months’ worth of planning and preparation. We stood staring at the last obstacle between us and freedom.
ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA KEY FREE
See You are free to make copies of this book and publish it wherever you like. The book was republished by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd in 2003, under the title "Inside Out - Escape from Pretoria Prison", ISBN 1-91. (Cover description from the original book).Įscape from Pretoria was first published by Kliptown Books, London, in April 1987. It is an account of how a white South Afican became conscious of the injustice on which his privileged life was based and chose to throw in his lot with the oppressed black majority of South Africa by joining the liberation struggle. It is, however, much more than just an escape story. But the truth was quite different.Įscape from Pretoria shows how patience, singlemindedness and meticulous attention to detail got the prisoners out of their cells and through 14 locked doors.to freedom. How did three political prisoners break out of one of South Africa`s top security prisons? Angry and embarrassed by the escape, the apartheid Security Branch forced one of the warders to say he had been bribed to help them.
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