Renfrew Christie
Renfrew Leslie Christie was a South African scholar and member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement whose covert operations for uMkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, provided intelligence that made possible the 1982 bombing of the Koeberg [Nuclear Power Station].
Life and career
Christie was born in Johannesburg on 11 September 1949.He was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to 10 years in prison under the Terrorism Act, 1967 for giving information on the nuclear programme of South Africa to the ANC. His actions were intended to thwart the Apartheid regime's development of weapons of mass destruction, specifically the government's clandestine nuclear arsenal. His work delayed the development of Apartheid South Africa's nuclear weapon programme by several years.
Christie was released in 1986 after accepting P.W. Botha's offer of freedom in exchange for his renunciation of political violence.
After the fall of Apartheid, Christie resumed his academic career at the University of the Western Cape. When asked by the BBC in 2018 if he was proud to have spied for the ANC, Christie said, "Absolutely. I was working for Nelson Mandela's military force, the uMkhonto we Sizwe. I'm very proud of that. We won. We got a democracy. We got a bill of rights. We got a constitutional court. It worked."
Christie died following a short illness at his home in Cape Town, on 21 December 2025, at the age of 76.
After his death, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said Christie's “relentless and fearless commitment to our freedom demands our appreciation.” The ANC lauded Dr. Christie's “act of profound revolutionary significance” in sabotaging the racist regime's nuclear development.