Who knew that 37 years ago an SAA Boeing was hijacked in the skies and forced to land in Malawi in an incredible drama that saw the hijacker demand an audience with mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer?

Fouad Kamil at work in his art studio.

It was South Africa’s very first hijacking and the hijacker, a Lebanese diamond agent who now lives in Brazil, gave Grubstreet an interview this week after he spotted a post I did about Eddie Botha’s two-part story about Fouad Kamil aka Flash Fred. Read the earlier post here and click here to read the two-part Dispatch story by Botha.

Now in his 80s and living as a writer and painter in the coastal city of Vitoria, north of Rio de Janeiro, Kamil told Grubstreet that he regretted the 1972 hijacking because “it was wrong to involve innocent people in my struggle for justice”.

He also said his mind was “full of resentment and contempt”. Since the hijacking, Kamil battled with Anglo American to claim money he believes he is still owed for recovering stolen diamonds for Anglo.

He claimed to Grubstreet that he only resorted to hijacking the plane because, he said, the mining company had kidnapped his secretary. “…her people blamed me. AA was threatening to kidnap my wife and son. They harassed and hunted me. My struggle was a fight for survival,” Kamil said via email.

"Anglo American survivng on the blindfolded and the weak" by Fouad Kamil.

In a 1992 letter from Oppenheimer to Kamil, he denied having any knowledge of Kamil’s grievances and claimed that they were based on misconception. Click here to read the letter at the Dispatch’s website. Later Oppenheimer gave Kamil $115 000 in the hope of “establishing normal relations” with Kamil.

Kamil, who is updating his 2003 autobiography, “The Diamond Curse”, to include allegations of dodgy diamond dealings and political meddling by Anglo in Sierra Leone, also had this to say on my blog when I asked him to expand on why he regretted the hijacking:

The following part of my autobiography, The Diamond Curse, may answer your question. Though confident of the success of the plan, I could not sleep. I could not dismiss the thought that I was about to take part in an action that in the past I had always condemned. I was not sure how to conduct negotiations in such circumstances. I searched for the possibility of another solution, even to the point of giving up the hijacking altogether. Needing to protect my family and survive, I could see no alternative. With every bridge burned behind me and every other path blocked, I had to go on.

"Lost" by Fouad Kamil.

He also said he remained frustrated that the media has been wowed by the sensational aspects of his life rather than pursuing other information he has passed onto them.

I confess it’s hard not to be wowed by Kamil’s adventurous life — a diamond agent in Africa in the 1960s and 70s, the hijack drama, the peculiar encounter with Malawian dictator Hastings Banda before his release and then his dealings with Oppenheimer are the stuff of classic crime fiction – except that it’s apparently fact. Read the Grubstreet email interview with the remarkable Kamil here and decide for yourself.

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Where do you live in Brazil and what do you like and dislike about living there?

I live on the 13^th floor of a building between a mountain and the Atlantic in the city of Vitoria. I do not dislike anything about living here. A few minutes drive from the city and one escapes the concrete jungle and feels being in the arms of nature. I admire Brazilians, their culture and way of life. I integrated so much into the Brazilian society that I was rewarded the attached title by the authorities.

What work have you been doing?

I have been writing and painting. During the last three years I completed writing two books; “The Diamond Curse” and “Legalized Terrorism” detailing Western colonial activities in the Middle East.

"Carnival" by Fouad Kamil

I noticed from the Dispatch story that you paint? Is this a hobby or do you sell your work and how would you describe your art?

Drawing and Painting was a hobby since childhood. I did two art courses at the American University of Beirut and the Groabardt School of Art in Frankfurt, Germany. I sell my work. My art is “Kamilism” (after my name. It is sort of free impressionism.)

Where on earth did you get the nickname “Flash Fred”?

The first one who called me Flash Fred was (Anglo American) director Tony Wilson because my operations were swift. Then col. Visser said it because my life style was flashy.

What do you remember most from hijacking the Letaba, that is, the stand-out memory from during the actual hijacking drama?

I have erased the hijacking from memory.

"Gaza Massacre" by Fouad Kamil

What did the pilot do to help foil the hijacking?

The pilot was interested only in his own survival. All he did to foil the hijacking was to pass on my demands to South Africa.

How did you feel when you were arrested?

I was relieved that no one got hurt and felt cornered more than ever before. I resolved in my mind to find a way to escape and carry on my fight against AA.

What was it like in a Malawian jail?

We were not held as prisoners, we were kept with political detainees, three prisoners were assigned to serve us and a sergeant was assigned to supply us with everything we needed from cigarettes to food, imported prohibited products from SA in buckets marked “whites only”.

What do you remember most from meeting Hastings Banda, when he released

"The Largest Prison on Earth" by Fouad Kamil.

you? He was an interesting dictator and what was your impression of him?

It was obvious that Banda had made a deal with AA to extract from me a file [allegedly showing Anglo American had influenced a Sierra Leonean coup de tat to protect its diamond mines]. The little man was just a parasite surviving on the Malawian public. He repeated something recorded in his mind: “I ordered the head of prisons to treat you well until the dust settles and you are freed…”

Why do you regret hijacking the plane?

I regret hijacking the plane because it was wrong to involve innocent people in my struggle for justice.

Do you think you have become obsessed with getting even with Anglo American?

What led to the hijacking was not a need to get even with AA. My struggle was a fight for survival.

What do you think you have learned from the hijacking drama and your long battle with Anglo American?

I learned that man is not civilized enough to provide fellow man with justice. Presently, what we call justice it is only an illusion of the weak, injured and needy. The legal system is just a monopoly available for the rich and powerful like the AA. Justice will exist when human vultures between the injured and the gavel holder are eliminated and courts of Law become like churches with open doors to the needy.

And, is there anything you wish to add?

I wish to add pages and pages. My mind is full of resentment and contempt. I struggled to communicate through the media, but newspapers I dealt with turned out to be bought by Anglo American. They avoided facts I passed on to them and stuck to sensational stories about Flash Fred.

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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

Part 2: Harry offered me more

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