By IANS,
Johannesburg: As part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of former South African president Nelson Mandela’s walk to freedom, the Victor Verster Prison where he spent the last years of his 27-year-long imprisonment, has been declared a memorial site.
“The Victor Verster Prison will be considered a memorial site which depicts the experience of the struggle for liberation in South Africa,” BuaNews reported Thursday, quoting National Heritage Council CEO Sonwabile Mancotywa.
The prison outside the town of Paarl is now known as the Drakenstein Correctional Centre.
Briefing the media on the eve of the commemoration of Mandela’s release, Mancotywa said the house will receive world status recognition as a heritage property of universal value when it is finally listed by the Unesco as part of the National Liberation Heritage Route (NLHR).
Mancotywa said the prison will go down in history as a place of pain which later became a space to honour, commemorate and symbolise the last lap in the struggle against apartheid.
“From the walls of that prison a legend emerged to teach the world about self-sacrifice, a deep sense of fairness and whose name would be the main carrier and reminder of the story of freedom.”
Mandela’s former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who held his hand as he walked out a free man Feb 11 1990, said she was grateful for this recognition.
“At last there is recognition of our leaders … and this will include other leaders such as Oliver Tambo and many others who sacrificed during the struggle.”