The Prison Letters of Demitrios Tsafendas, 1966–1986

Abstract

This article focuses on a body of archival material on the imprisonment of Demitrios Tsafendas, the man who assassinated Hendrik Verwoerd, prime minister of South Africa from 1958 to 1966. At his Summary Trial in October 1966, Tsafendas was found to be insane and declared a ‘State President’s Patient’. He was incarcerated on Robben Island and in Pretoria Maximum Security prison between 1966 and 1994. During the course of my research on Tsafendas, I discovered a set of documents that dealt with the administrative, legal and medical details of his incarceration. Interspersed among the documents I found a number of letters written by Tsafendas between November 1966 and October 1986. These letters are significant for a number of reasons. They have never been used before, and very little of his prison life is covered in biographical accounts of his life, although he spent a total of 28 years in prison. Written over a period of roughly 20 years, these letters represent the only record of his attempt to ‘give an account of himself’. During this time, he was kept in solitary confinement and was not allowed access to newspapers, radio or television. Certain privileges that long-term prisoners had, such as permission to study, did not apply to him. Most of the letters were addressed to the prison authorities, requesting permission for certain medical treatments, study privileges, visitation rights and books such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and study materials. He also used these letters to express his opinions on a number of matters, which ranged from the quality of the clothing provided by the prison stores to German engineering feats during the Second World War. The wider national political context was one in which the apartheid regime experienced major political crises, and the imprint of these events are clearly discernible in the letters.