The Long Walk To Freedom Statue outside the Drakenstein Correctional Centre (formerly Victor Verster Prison). It was at these gates where on 11 February 1990, the day of his release, he was met with a jubilant crowd and news agencies from all over the world. The statue was unveiled in August 2008 in the presence of Mandela on the occasion of his 90th birthday. It is a low-security prison between Paarl and Franschhoek, on the R301 road 5 km from the R45 Huguenot Road, in the valley of the Dwars River in the Western Cape of South Africa.
In 1982 Mandela was transferred from the maximum security prison on Robben Island, a small island opposite Cape Town. Known as the ‘Long Walk to Freedom Statue’, it was commissioned by the charitable Sexwale Family Foundation. One of the inscriptions on the plinth reads ‘in honour of ‘Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela together with all those who walked before, alongside and for him in the quest for a united non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and free South Africa as part of the international struggle for human solidarity against all forms of oppression and exploitation’.
Size: 6016px × 4016px
Location: Drakenstein Correctional Centre, near Cape Town, South Africa
Photo credit: © Neil O'Shea / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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