He was imprisoned from 1964 to 1971 for his activities in support of the African Resistance Movement, and then spent 20 years in exile, returning to South Africa in 1992.
[2] His father, William, was the brother of Francis Lewin [1], captain of the HMS Veronica, (and great grandfather to John Rees-Evans).
[3] He was educated at Rhodes University and then became a journalist at the Natal Witness in Pietermaritzburg, also writing for Drum magazine and Golden City Post in Johannesburg.
[2] Lewin was an anti-apartheid activist, and was imprisoned for seven years from July 1964 for his activities in support of the African Resistance Movement.
After being banned for many years, his 1974 prison memoir was republished in South Africa with new material in 2002, as Bandiet: Out of Jail, illustrated by Harold Strachan.