[2] He started associating with African National Congress (ANC) exiles and beginning in 1967, he travelled in and out of South Africa transporting literature for the movement.
The arrests at Liliesleaf and convictions which followed at the Rivonia Trial in 1963-4 were followed by widespread roundups of activists and leaders, including Bram Fischer and Wilton Mkwayi.
There was an effort to rebuild the armed wing known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and a plan was hatched by Oliver Tambo, Joe Slovo and/or Moses Mabhida, with the help of the South African Communist Party[2] to land 25 combatants plus arms via a boat previously purchased by the ANC, the Adventurer (or Avventura[4]), on the Transkei coast via the Indian Ocean from Somalia.
[3] On 23 October 1973, the matter of possible theft of documents from the Clapham Common home of Moumbaris and his wife was raised in the UK parliament by Labour party MP Alex Lyon.
Home Office Minister Mark Carlisle said no evidence had been found at that time of South African responsibility for illegal activities, but appropriate action would be taken should it appear.
[13] Marie-José was repeatedly denied a visitor's visa to visit him in prison, and in February 1978 Moumbaris went on a hunger strike to try to force the authorities to let her in, but after 10 days realised the futility of this and gave up.
[16] On 11 December 1979 the three escapees managed to execute their master plan, against all odds, and made it outside the prison wearing civilian clothes.
[17] Lee, having many friends in Johannesburg, thought it best to contact them in the first instance, so the group split at that point, making plans to meet in London.
Moumbaris and Jenkin, by a variety of means, travelled overland to Swaziland and went to United Nations High Commission for Refugees, who were sympathetic to their plight and took them to an ANC representative.
Thence to Mozambique, and, via contact with FRELIMO, to Angola, where from the ANC office in Luanda they were able to make phone calls to their families, and were also given the news Lee was on his way to join them at the airport.
On 9 January Moumbaris left for France and was welcomed upon arrival in Paris by Marie-José (whom he had not seen for seven years), his mother, 7-year-old son Boris, and many friends and well-wishers.
[20] In Paris, Moumbaris organised the opening of the ANC office in 1981[21] and continued to assist the struggle against apartheid in various ways, including recruiting comrades for missions in South Africa for MK.
The video features excerpts from interviews with Moumbaris, Jenkin, Lee and fellow inmate Denis Goldberg filmed in 2012, in between re-enacted scenes of the prison escape.
[25][26] Filming of Escape from Pretoria began in Adelaide, South Australia, in March 2019, with Daniel Webber joining the cast as Lee.