Historical Organization
South African prison service
South African prison service
Details
Organization Timeline
Robben Island becomes a political prison
đź“… 1 April 1961Robben Island was converted into a prison for people convicted of political crimes. The island would become a central site of apartheid incarceration, where distance, forced labor, censorship, and...
Mandela is transferred to Robben Island
đź“… 27 May 1963Mandela was transferred from Pretoria to Robben Island to serve his five-year sentence. The prison regime used isolation, hard labor, censorship, and limited contact with family and political...
Mandela arrives on Robben Island as prisoner 466/64
đź“… 13 June 1964Mandela arrived on Robben Island the day after the life sentences. The Foundation timeline records this arrival on 13 June, while its detailed chronology records the sentencing and transfer on 12...
Mandela writes to Robben Island’s commanding officer
đź“… 12 September 1964A scholarly study of press access to Robben Island cites a letter Mandela addressed to the commanding officer on 12 September 1964. The record places him in early administrative correspondence with...
Mandela writes to the Commissioner of Prisons
đź“… 14 March 1965The archival record dates a letter to the Commissioner of Prisons to 14 March 1965. Mandela used formal correspondence to contest the administration of political imprisonment and advocate for...
Mandela’s mother Nosekeni dies while he is imprisoned
📅 24 September 1968Nonqaphi Nosekeni died while Mandela was serving his life sentence on Robben Island. Prison authorities refused him permission to attend her funeral. The state’s control over visits and movement...
Mandela’s son Thembekile dies in a car accident
📅 13 July 1969Mandela’s eldest son, Thembekile (“Thembi”), died in a car accident. The prison authorities denied Mandela permission to attend the funeral. He was left to grieve and support family members through...
Mandela protests abuse of authority on Robben Island
đź“… 12 July 1976Mandela wrote a 22-page letter to the Commissioner of Prisons alleging abuse of authority, political persecution, and irregularities by the commanding officer and staff. The letter was a documented...
Mandela writes about censored and undelivered letters
đź“… 26 October 1976Mandela wrote to Winnie that he felt sad because letters he sent were not reaching her. The prison correspondence archive preserves the short dated note. It exposes censorship not as an abstraction...
Mandela writes about delays in correspondence with Winnie
đź“… 26 May 1978Mandela wrote to Winnie after more than a month without receiving a letter. He wondered whether she had written but prison correspondence bottlenecks had prevented delivery. Their exchange makes the...
An International Committee of the Red Cross delegation visits Mandela
📅 6 September 1981Mandela’s prison diary records a visit from an International Committee of the Red Cross delegation. The visit was part of a longer effort by humanitarian organizations to inspect conditions and...
Mandela and three comrades are transferred to Pollsmoor Prison
📅 31 March 1982Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, and Andrew Mlangeni were transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison on the Cape Town mainland. The move ended Mandela’s 18 years on the island but did...
Winnie visits Mandela at Pollsmoor
📅 24 April 1982Mandela’s prison diary records Winnie visiting him at Pollsmoor with journalist Allister Sparks, who was not allowed to enter. The visit followed his transfer from Robben Island and shows the...
Prison authorities tell Mandela his nephew wants to visit
đź“… 28 February 1984A prison official informed Mandela that his nephew, Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima, wanted to visit. The diary entry captures how even a family visit depended on official permission and could become a...
The International Committee of the Red Cross visits Mandela at Pollsmoor
đź“… 4 September 1984A delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Mandela at Pollsmoor. The visit brought an international humanitarian body into a prison system whose conditions the apartheid...
Mandela is taken to the Pollsmoor gardens
📅 12 January 1986A prison officer drove Mandela to Pollsmoor’s gardens, where he spent an hour looking at fields. The Foundation’s diary-based record preserves a small, ordinary moment inside a life governed by...
Attorney Himie Bernardt visits Mandela
📅 3 March 1986Attorney Himie Bernardt visited Mandela at Pollsmoor. The diary-based Foundation entry records the visit as part of the prison’s tightly managed access regime. Lawyers and visitors could carry...