WEBVTT - The Rebel With A Cause: Rodney Wilkinson 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:07.800 Elizabeth Dutton, Sarah Burnette, missus Ridiculous Crime. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.639 It's miss sorry, I'm a modern woman. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.240 Ridiculous Crime. Yeah, got a question for. 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:15.480 You, Yes, Captain Ridiculous Crime. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:16.959 Do you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:18.599 I do big birthdays. 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:19.640 Big birthdays. 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.880 Big birthdays are ridiculous because it's funny. Like we've talked 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:28.000 before about that in this Ridiculous Crime universe. The difference 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.760 in how we celebrate birthdays, said your big birthday guy, 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.000 and I am. I've forgotten my own birthday on. 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:37.320 Multiple multiple. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.560 However, I want to celebrate other people's birthdays. Oh okay, 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:43.960 I like to celebrate yours. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:44.760 That's true. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.040 I like to celebrate our founding fathers various birthdays. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.560 It is true. Big holidays got the time off, so 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:52.000 why not. 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.640 Then I found out about a big birthday for a 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:59.320 friend of the show birthday, big birthday baby. A friend 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.840 of the show, you may remember her summer sent us 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.920 that or probably actually I should say, sent me the 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.800 black garlic dog. Yes, said the proper it was. It 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.720 was an interesting taste sensation, and I did kind of 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.560 like rubbing it on my teeth. And then showing you 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:18.800 you didn't like that. I liked it anyway. 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:20.000 So I was. 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:27.080 Kaya Summer's sister. Let us know that on July twenty ninth, 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:31.759 Summer is turning thirty. What And I can't believe that. God, 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.080 Summer is like, Summer's a friend of the show. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:35.920 Totally happy birthday, Summer. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.160 And I you know, for friends of the show, I 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.679 like to give them a big, rousing happy birthday. No, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.119 and so I mean I do have the I have limits. 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.560 You saw my instinct. I'm like, we're doing a musical number. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.040 Well, I think people need to know that. I've heard you. 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.080 You call people on their birthdays and you sing a 0:01:53.560 --> 0:02:00.440 very robust and enthusiastic Frank Sinatra day. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:05.960 Late Frank Late do be Dooby do exactly late, Strangers. 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.960 In the Night, and it's so loud. I've been in 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.000 the studio waiting for you, and I hear you down 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:17.240 in the hall. What the h double hockey sticks? So 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.360 Summer you are going to miss out on that. But 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.000 I just want to also, I want to thank you 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.080 once again for the garlic dip and wish you the 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.880 best thirtieth birthday around. Someday I'm going to turn thirty, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.200 and I hope it's great. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:30.360 Happy birthday. 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:38.040 And that is ridiculous, ridiculous. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.720 Well, you know what's else's ridiculous, Elizabeth? 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:41.160 Tell me? 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:43.560 Well, I'll have to ask you a question. What's the 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.320 most ridiculous thing a person could blow up to advance 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:47.200 a political cause? 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.919 Oh, don't answer that. 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:51.840 I'll just ask you a better question. How about a 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:53.480 nuclear reactor? Oh? 0:02:53.560 --> 0:03:14.480 I was going like farm antals. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:22.240 This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:27.360 and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:34.600 one hundred percent ridiculous. Oh, Elizabeth, Today I have the 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.120 story for you of a man who went to ridiculous 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.400 lengths for a cause he believed in. And since I 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:42.160 don't want you to worry, I'll just tell you going 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.920 in our ninety nine percent murder free guarantees, still stands 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.200 no violations of the guarantee in this episode. Oh yes, 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:50.840 just tell you that right out the front. 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:51.880 Thank goodness. 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:53.680 Now, to set the stage, I'd like to quote the 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.160 timeless words of Pee Wee Herman. Yeah, I'm a loner, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:57.200 Dottie Reberend. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.120 You know I say that all the time. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.200 For you specifically, this is a story of a loner, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.880 a rebel, and I love him nice. But more than that, 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.560 it's the story of a dope, smoking, bike riding, commune 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.240 living hippie who tries to blow up a nuclear reactor 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.599 in order to free black South Africans from apartheid. So 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:18.120 obviously I double. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.120 Love it is there it is. Oh my god, he 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:21.360 checks all your boxes. 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.160 One hundred percent. So Elizabeth, what do you know about 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.320 the South African nuclear energy program? 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.720 Well, it's really interesting because it started. Why are you 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:30.400 laughing at me? 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:31.839 I was just waiting at you know what? 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.039 Fine? Oh, I don't know. Zaren Man explained it to me. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.560 Well, it happens to have been in the news a 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.839 lot lately if you followed that sort of thing. On 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.800 July sixteenth of this very year, Elizabeth, the British tabloid 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.880 The Mirror reported that, and I quote, a South African 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:52.840 nuclear power plant suffered three incidents involving airborne radioactive contamination 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.600 after a loss of power. The three separate contamination events 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.520 took place inside the Coburg Power Station, the only nuclear 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.840 power station in Africa, on June thirtieth, July second, and 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:05.320 July seventh. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:07.800 Wow, that's exactly what I was about to tell you. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.400 I figured, well, naturally, the words airborne radioactive contamination sound bad. 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.080 It does sound bad because they are bad. Yeah, they're bad. 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.400 They're bad business right now, as the Mirror further reported. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.480 To help ameliorate any concern from the general public, and 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.279 I quote, South Africa's nuclear regulator said Thursday that no 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.080 radioactive material leaked into the environment on the three occasions 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.520 and it was all contained inside the station with no 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.760 danger to the public. So that's good. Yeah, there's no 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.800 need for anyone to take a karen silkwood shower woo. Right, 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:41.760 that's the term you don't hear very often. 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.240 Yeah. A friend of mine was just recently saying that 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:47.719 he uses that reference a couple times a year and 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:49.440 people don't know what it is. Really was like, are 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.760 you kidding me, I'm always talking about silkwood showers. 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:53.680 Yes, that's where I pulled it from. I heard you 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.480 use it recently with one of the interns. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.520 Yeah, yeah, the one there. I'm like, you smell. Now, 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.840 I'm gonna have to go give you a silkwood shower. No, 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:02.120 not a human in turn. 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.880 Anyway, back to South Africa Nuclear Energy program. In the 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.119 nineteen fifties, South Africa sent young scientists to the United 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:14.000 States to study nuclear physics and nuclear energy. Two decades later, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.000 in nineteen seventies, that same generation of scientists now led 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.840 South Africa's pursuit of its own nuclear energy ambitions, which 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:23.640 included building a nuclear weapon. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.200 Okay, oh yeah. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.320 So the South African government, they promised that they didn't 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.320 want to build nuclear weapons for war. No, South Africa 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.200 wanted to build nuclear bombs that were to be used 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.279 in their mining operations. You know, all the diamond minds. 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.640 Are you kidding me? That's a great way. Yeah, that's 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:42.720 perfect way to do it. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.080 Are you having troubled digging deeper open pits in the 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.040 earth to mine your diamonds? Have you considered a nuclear bomb? 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:49.680 That's so bizarre? 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.159 Yes, obviously, I think that was just what they call 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:54.480 in the fiction telling business, a lie. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.400 Oh yeah, that's definitely, that's that's a lie. 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.080 Yeah, it was a copper story, right. So, the South 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.919 Africa government really wanted to build nuclear weapons to fend 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.800 off the Soviet Union and to scare them off from 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.240 further helping the black South Africans and the African National 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.240 Congress aka the ANC who were trying to overthrow apartheid 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:13.760 South Africa's. 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.080 Government Soviet support. 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.200 Oh yes, yes, Zimbabwe did as well. Basically a lot 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.600 of the they were moving down the continent and Soviets 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:23.640 were helping them. So there's a fight over Angola. Na, 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.200 maybe a South Africa is encroaching, Zimbabwe is fighting. The 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.720 Cubans are getting involved in Angola. It was like a 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:30.840 wild business and it. 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.240 Hits the economic interests of Western Europe. 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.480 Oh definitely, yeah, exactly. So now enter our crimer of 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.240 the day, Rodney Wilkinson. 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:39.880 Rodney. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.560 Rodney's a curious chap Elizabeth, to say the least, like 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.880 homie was once the national fencing champion of South Africa. Okay, 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.240 but we were getting ahead of ourselves. As Rodney tells 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.360 his own life story and an interview with South Africahistory 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.480 dot Org and I quote so I was born in 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.400 forty nine in Parktown, North Joe burg. I was the 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:00.840 second son of four of us. My father was born 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.480 in Canada, also a soldier in the artillery in the 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.840 Second World War, and that influenced our childhood quite a 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.840 lot because we would go on holiday with his old 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:11.520 soldier friends so we learned to shoot at a tender 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.040 age and we learned to drive. Life in joe Burgh 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.640 for us was a typically white middle class Yeah. So 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:19.800 you notice I'm not doing any South African accent because 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:20.680 it's not what I can do. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:22.160 Yeah. That's a tough one. 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.800 Yeah, so it's very specific. Now back to Rodney. He 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.360 grows up in this apartheid South Africa. It's a middle 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.680 class existence. He's raised in a military family. 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:30.080 Yeah. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.199 However, things are far more complicated than that little thumbnail 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:37.959 sketch might suggest, because, for instance, his father was a Communist. Huh, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.240 not when Rodney knew him as his father, but rather 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.840 back when his father was a college student. Except for 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:47.320 then of Stalin's whole wave of purges, the mass imprisonment, 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.599 the lives lost, his dad soured on Communism. However, he 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.959 still believed in looking out for others in community, so 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.600 he taught his children those same values. Anyway, Rodney gets 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:00.960 into fencing as a kid, and as he tells it, 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.400 I was nine when I got into fencing. A friend 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.240 of my brother had Austrian friends who were fencers, very good, 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.400 and my brother went along. And when I turned nine, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.880 my mom said you go along two. They taught us 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.440 free on condition that we came twice a week. So 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:15.920 by the time I was sixteen, I was doing very well, 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.640 and by the time I was twenty three, I was winning. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.319 And eventually I won all three weapons, almost second in Sable, 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.080 but top in Foyle and EPI so boom boom boom 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.880 National champion. Now as good as Rodney was with a 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.359 sword in his hand, he couldn't compete at the Olympics 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.280 because he's South African and at the time, the apartheid 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.640 state was banned from international competitions. Yeah right, and so 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.640 Rodney eventually he follows his father in a military service, 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:43.640 but he has a hard time in the army because 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.800 he supports the anti war movement and the hippies in 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.240 the US and abroad, and this friction compels Rodney to 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.439 go a wall. Yeah, but then he gets lured back 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.840 to the military because the military locates him and they 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.400 threatened him to prison unless he rejoins his division, which 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.760 eventually does. Anyway, one night, Rodney and his mates in 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.599 the army they steal a Mercedes Benz troop carrier and 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.120 he takes it on a beer run, after which they 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.040 all you know, turn up drunk at the airport and 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.839 they're all headed home except for Rodney. He's not flying out, 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:14.840 so he decides, I'm just going to keep the military 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.600 personnel carrier and go a wall again. Why not? A right? So, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.559 as Rodney tells it, I decided to take the truck 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:23.360 and drive it till it ran out of fuel and 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:24.280 then hitchhike. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:24.800 That. 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.520 I love that, right, simple plan. Not many were moving parts. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.080 Till the wheels come off, Just do it. 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.200 Yeah, So, I mean it's a solid plan in theory. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.720 But then again, driving drunk alone in the bush in 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:39.079 the dark of night, but you can probably see where 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.200 this is going. Rodney gets tired. Eventually he falls asleep 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:46.160 driving and boom, he wrecks. Back to Rodney's account, as 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.960 I drove about midnight, I fell asleep at the wheel 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.560 and turned this thing over right upside down, head over 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.520 heels over a culvert. I injured myself severely. I had 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.520 a hole in my forehead about an inch deep. 0:10:57.840 --> 0:10:58.800 Oh that's an injury. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.000 Yeah, that seemed your brain that's a big yeah. But 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.920 it's actually way worse than it sounds. Rodney recalls, I 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.520 broke my skull and I was pinned underneath the vehicle 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.319 upside down, with the steering wheel in my chest and 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.319 feet up in the pedal well, hot oils pouring out 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.240 of the engine onto me. Yeah. So he's stuck there 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.079 alone with his heavy ass military truck on top of him, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.120 leaking hot oil onto him, and Rodney has to do 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.120 what he has to do. He has to rescue himself, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.120 which he does as he remembered it. Quote, he managed 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.600 to wear the ground away with my shoulders and got 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:34.880 out before it possibly exploded and didn't explode. I walked 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.000 till dawn and found a farmhouse. So imagine you're this 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.200 farmer in the middle of nowhere and the skinny army 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.040 kid comes to your door at the crack of dawn 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.680 and he's in bad shape, like he's got motor oil 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:49.240 sticking to burnt skin. Yeah, and he's like, use your phone. So, 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.560 as Rodney tells it, I was covered in blood. The 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.280 farmer called the cops and made me sit outside until 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.800 they arrived. He gave me coffee. We were not the first, 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.840 judging by the reaction of the farmer. It happened before, 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.800 and he was hundreds of kilometers south of the action. Now, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.600 when Rodney says action, he means the illegal invasion of 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:11.360 neighboring Angola by the South African Army, because this accident 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.839 was bad news because if Prescott wind of it, it 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:18.600 would have been evidence of South Africa's illegal military recursion. Okay, okay, right, 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.000 So the army they make Rodney promise he won't talk 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:22.640 to the press, and then they make him sign a 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.440 document that says he won't sue the army for his injuries, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.400 and then they basically release him. So around this time, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.840 Rodney leaves the Army. He goes to live in Cape Town. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.760 He becomes a fencing instructor. This is also where he 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.200 meets a guy who tells him about this hippie commune. 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.880 So then Rodney jumps at the idea of living there. 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.319 And while he's living there, one of his fencing students 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.640 tells him about a new opportunity Rodney might also be 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:47.840 down to do. And as Rodney tells it, and I 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.320 quote one of my fencing pupils, Dennis Penaluna, and a 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.760 pub claimed to be a communist, and he thought that 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.560 the way to provoke the revolution was to behave like 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.679 the oppressor and suggested I contact his friend who was 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.600 an in engineer at Cobourg for a job. 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.440 I love all these commies and defensing right is that. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.560 He's like, you should get a job at the nuclear facility. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.360 By the way, I'm going to be late to practice 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.560 on Wednesday. So when he's in college, Rodney had studied engineering, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.079 so he was qualified to be a draftsman on this 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.400 construction crew. And lo and behold, I got the job. 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.160 So this sets up his next adventure as an undercover 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.480 revolutionary in a nuclear power plant. 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:27.600 That's safe, right, super safe? 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.440 So for now, elizabethill, let's take a break and after 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.439 these messages, we joined the revolution. 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:55.640 Oh and we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:57.760 You're ready to join the revolution? Oh? 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.600 Yes, good? Yeah? 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.960 Where were we? That's right. It's the late nineteen seventies 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.559 and my man Rodney Wilkinson is living on a commune 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.240 while working at a nuclear power plant, about to become 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.520 an undercover operative for the anti apartheid resistance. 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:13.959 Yeah, okay, he's a lot. 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.800 Oh yeah, late nineteen seventies. Buttons, if he was like 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:19.680 saving whales, I think he would cover the mall. 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:24.320 Oh he would, but instead he's on God did he 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:25.960 wear his little Beekeeper outfit. 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.720 Oh, that would be awesome. Like at work skin Tech. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:30.960 I've got a match at nine tonight. 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.920 So I got to I gotta stay ready, Elizabeth. 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.680 The Cobourg Nuclear Power Station is located about nineteen miles 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.920 north of Cape Town. At the time, it was not 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.040 yet operational. It was under construction and it was scheduled 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.560 to come online soon. Right. So, as a guardian described it, quote, 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:50.360 Coburg was the crown jewel of the apartheid state's energy program. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:56.040 Proof of civilization, symbol of technological superiority, monument to permanence 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:01.240 in a state built on forced labor. Yeah, and thus 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.560 it was also a prize target for the rebels who 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:04.760 opposed apartheid rule. 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.520 Well, and I questioned any monument to permanence? 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:12.360 Yeah, right, that does he hear God laughing? Now? 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:12.880 Yeah. 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.400 Back to Rodney. While living at the hippie commune, Rodney, 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.280 who was about twenty nine years old at the time, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.560 he falls for this young woman named Heather Gray. As 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:22.360 they say, they fall in love. They begin spending all 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:28.560 their time together. Their hobbies included organic farming, fencing, dope smoking, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.680 and plotting the downfall of the apartheid government. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.720 That's a cute. That's a meat cute, right, that is. 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:34.440 Totally you can see the potential. I can see the 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:35.160 poster for the rom com. 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:35.960 Yeah, totally. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:39.200 So after Rodney gets a job at the Coburg Nuclear plant, 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.720 he works there for eighteen months and his girlfriend Heather 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.640 suggests that since he's a draftsman for the construction, he should, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.200 you know, steal the blueprints or like maybe like a 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.440 wiring schematic and then you know, they could use those. 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:52.800 It'd be amazing, thank you. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:54.480 Rodney does exactly that. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:55.320 I love it. 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.920 And as he tells it, there was this really fat 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.000 catalog book that identified all the rooms of the nuclear 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.480 power plant, all the wiring and the conduits. So he 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.360 steals that. At first he actually has a guy copy it, 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:07.920 and then he takes that right. 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:09.880 But like that's the thing, like could you copy this 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.480 for me? He's why you don't ask questions. It's a 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.600 little above your pay grade, dude, make the copy, basically 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:17.560 what he does, and then he has it like tucked 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:18.800 under his shirt and he's. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.840 Acting doing like the Napoleon pose with his hands in 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.640 his shirt. So at this point he and Heather they 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.200 sneak into Zimbabwe and they try to smuggle these plants 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.680 to a n C operatives that they know, and their 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.960 arrival of course catches the attention of a zimbabwe And spy. 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.720 So this guy, Jeremy Brickhill, he was a fellow white rebel. 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.000 He was also working against the apartheid South African governments. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.160 Because Brickhill he had deserted from the Rhodesian Army to 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.000 enlist with the Gorilla Zimbabwean Army. So he becomes then 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.080 the director of ZEBRA, which is like the armed wing 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.120 of the Zimbabwean Liberation Army. So he becomes like a 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.240 high muckety mucky in the rebel army. And so as 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.560 he's essentially the spy master, right, So as the spy master, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.960 Brickhill has this network of spies working for him. One 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.240 of his mini spies tells him about this hippie couple 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.639 who've just shown up in Zimbabwe and they claim they 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.879 have blueprints for South Africa's new nuclear power plant and 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:14.680 they want to hand them over to the A and C. 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.760 Brick Hill says, I want to meet these hippies for myself, 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.919 right exactly, No this point, it's early on in nineteen 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.600 eighty one in brick Hill. He gets invited to a 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.840 party at the home where one of his spies is 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.960 hosting Rodney and Heather. They're staying with the spy. He 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.920 pretends to be just another party guest, so the clock 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.679 keeps going. The parties to rocking, and they run out 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.199 of beer, right, so brick Hill suggests, let's make a 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.159 beer run and he asks Rodney to drive you and 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.480 me brother. Now, once they're out on the road alone 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.359 in the bush in the dark, brick Hill confesses that 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.320 he is an officer of the Zimbabwe and Liberation Forces. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.040 He knows about the blueprints for the South African nuclear 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.320 power plan, and he wants to know who the hell 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:55.080 Rodney is. 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:55.639 Yeah. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.119 Yeah, So keep in mind Rodney has been partying, so 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.760 he's drunk. He now has a spy master a grilling him, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.280 and when brick Hill starts questioning him, Rodney wrongly assumes 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.159 that the spy master is accusing him of being a 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.679 spy for South Africa, which he may or may not, 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:09.119 I think. 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:10.840 So yeah, he's probably thinking, are you trying to set 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:11.560 us up with this? 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.199 Yeah? Exactly so, because it's just the story is too 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.320 good to be true. He's also former military for South Africa. 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:19.200 You know he's. 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.000 Right there. I wouldn't trust it him thinking he's put 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.399 wrong information in this book to set us up. 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:27.960 That's a good read. 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:29.480 You can't trust anyone, Sarin. 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:31.960 No, you and I both say that all the time 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:32.399 for each other. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:33.040 True. 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:34.280 We don't even trust her anybody. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.880 I say it all the time because it's true. 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.760 Well, at this point Rodney, he gets pissed. He says 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.439 he's no spy for those apartheid pigs, and then he 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.439 steers the car off the bush road and he aims 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.159 the car to tree and he shouts, you don't believe me, 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:49.480 I'm gonna kill us both. 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.720 He's like, I have been in a gnarly accident and 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.560 I lived. I'll try try it again. I'll do anything 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:57.560 twice roll them. 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:00.560 So, of course Rodney doesn't really want to kill them both, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.000 so eventually slams on the brakes and the cars like 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.480 screeches to a halt and it stops just short of 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.120 the tree. Like Rodney you. 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.840 Wild, wow his city. The hole in his head was 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:11.840 a buzzy. 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.000