Anti-apartheid activist who features in documentary to hold Q&A session after screening

An anti-apartheid activist will be holding a talk about a film he is featured in following a cinema screening.Steve Marsling, who features in the documentary ‘Comrade Tambo’s London Recruits’, will be speaking at the Majestic Cinema in Lynn on Friday, January 10.The film tells the astonishing story of a group of young people living and studying in London who were recruited by the African National Congress (ANC) to carry out undercover work in South Africa in the 1970s.

This was at a time when the leadership of the ANC was either in jail or in exile.Mr Marsling was one of those who flew to South Africa to set off ‘leaflet bombs’ – harmless devices that distributed banned ANC propaganda showing the black population that the fight against apartheid was continuing despite the setbacks suffered by the leadership.The work was dangerous, with imprisonment, torture and even execution facing any of the activists who got caught.

The film is described as a “real edge-of-seat drama” with the action supplemented by contributions from some of the surviving recruits. It has been playing to packed audiences around the country since its release in November.It won the Best Documentary award at the Johannesburg Film Festival and the Simon Mabhunu Sabela Award for Best Pan-African Film. Mr Marsling, now 74, has more recently been campaigning for better access to NHS dental care and was a founding member of Toothless in Suffolk and England.He will take part in a question and answer session after the film, which starts at 7pm.