Fencer Bombed Nuclear Plant and Vanished for 40 Years
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- Rodney Wilkinson was South Africa’s national fencing champion in foil and sabre at 21, with international experience in Europe and Argentina, though barred from the Olympics due to apartheid-era sanctions.
- Rodney Wilkinson fatally impaled his coach Vincent Bonfil during a fencing accident in 1971 when a foil snapped; a Johannesburg magistrate ruled the death accidental, and Bonfil’s mother later embraced Wilkinson as a son.
- Rodney Wilkinson planted four bombs at the Koeberg nuclear power station in December 1982, weeks before its launch, then disappeared after a farewell drink with colleagues, evading capture for over four decades.
- Matilda Knill unknowingly hosted Wilkinson for years at her home in Knysna until a film producer’s call prompted her to Google 'Koeberg,' revealing his identity, after which she permanently took him in.
- Jeremy Brickhill, a former Rhodesian army deserter and intelligence officer in Zimbabwe’s Zipra, vetted Wilkinson and Gray in 1981 after they arrived with stolen Koeberg plans, ultimately accepting them as genuine allies during a tense roadside confrontation.
- Rodney Wilkinson stole a 200-page technical catalogue of Koeberg’s layout while working as a junior draughtsman, aided by a Black colleague who cooperated due to Wilkinson treating him as an equal under apartheid conditions.
Why it matters: Wilkinson’s story reveals a hidden act of anti-apartheid sabotage by a man shaped by personal tragedy and military disillusionment, whose successful decades-long disappearance underscores both the regime’s security failures and the moral ambiguities of resistance. One individual’s quiet life in Knysna concealed a pivotal moment in South Africa’s struggle history.
