The Daily Dispatch’s veteran hack Eddie Botha has such a fascinating two-part tale in the paper about SA’s first hijacker who, in 1972, laid his hands on an SAA Boeing to force Anglo American and De Beers to pay him money for missing diamonds he had recovered.
Botha has known Kamil for years and first came across him when he was Rapport’s news editor.
It truly is a rollicking adventure story from another age, with the hijacker Fouad Kamil, a.k.a. Flash Fred, landing himself and an assocaite in a Malawian jail for a few months after the then president, Hastings Banda, said: “Those thieves in the air, those gangsters, those fools will be left to rot and cool off in jail.” We don’t get quotes like this anymore! Imagine George W Bush saying something so poetic about hijackers.
In a nutshell the story goes like this: Kamil felt he had been shortchanged by Anglo so he hijacked an SAA plane bound for Zimbabwe (then Rhodeisa) that was meant to have Harry Oppenheimer’s son-in-law on it. But it didn’t! The plane was forced to land in Malawi, where Kamil demanded that Oppenheimer meet him in Blantyre. If he didn’t, he threatend, he would blow up Anglo’s headquarters in Joburg and kidnap his daughter, Mary.
The plot was folied by the Boeing captain and Malawian troops and Kamil was arrested. Astonishingly, he only spent a few months in jail before Banda released him and a fellow hijacker, and told them personally that they were welcome to remain in Malawi. After that, Kamil moved to Sapin and later settled in Brazil. He has contiued to demand his money form Anglo and, in fact, did get a sizable amount after Oppenheimer sent an emissary to sort the matter out.
Oppenheimer even wrote Kamil a letter after he was posted a copy of his book, and the Dispatch has a copy! Great reading for a long weeked — it’s not just an extraordinary crime caper but an insight into the humble, generous Oppenheimer. Here are the links:
Part 1: Plan to seize Oppenheimer
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