Fifty
years ago, on 13 June 1964, Nelson Mandela arrived on Robben Island to start
serving his life sentence for sabotage. But it was not his first time on the
island.
In May
1963 - six months into a five-year prison sentence for leaving South Africa
without a passport and inciting a strike - he was transferred from Pretoria
Local Prison to the island.
He was
part of a group of four political prisoners taken there from Pretoria. The
others were Stephen Tefu, John Kgaitsiwe and Aaron Molete.
Almost
from the start, he had verbal altercations with prison warders, one of whom
almost assaulted him. "I say, 'You dare touch me, I will take you to the
highest court in this land and by the time I'm finished with you, you will be
as poor as a church mouse.' And he stopped," Mandela said later when
recounting the story.
"I
was frightened; it was not because I was courageous, but one had to put up a
front and so he stopped."
First incarceration
That
story demonstrates the attitude Mandela took in coping with life in prison:
"I believe the way in which you
will be treated by the prison authorities
depends on your demeanour, and you must fight that battle and win it on the
very first day."
Mandela's
first incarceration on Robben Island lasted only two weeks. On 12 June 1963,
without any warning, he was returned to Pretoria, almost a full month before
the raid on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia during which a group of his key comrades
was arrested.
Mandela
and others arrested elsewhere were joined in one trial and charged with
sabotage. This became known as the Rivonia Trial. When the eight-month trial
ended on 12 June 1964, Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life
imprisonment.
·
Read more: SA marks 50 years since Rivonia Trial sentencing
Around
midnight, hours after their sentencing on 12 June 1964, Mandela, Walter Sisulu,
Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew
Mlangeni were flown to Robben Island. Dennis Goldberg was separated from them
because he was white, and sent to serve his sentence in Pretoria.
Mandela
was to remain on the Island until 31 March 1982, when he was transferred to
Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town along with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada
joined them there in October.
When
Mandela fell ill on 12 August 1988 he was taken to Tygerberg Hospital, where he
was diagnosed with tuberculosis. On 31 August 1988 he was transferred to
Constantiaberg MediClinic, where he continued his treatment.
On 7
December 1988 he was transferred to Victor Verster Prison, between Paarl and
Franschhoek, where he remained for the next 14 months before he was released.
