Prison building
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  Location in Cape Town | |
| Location | Robben Island, Cape Town |
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| Coordinates | 33°48′01″S 18°22′16″E / 33.80028°S 18.37111°E / -33.80028; 18.37111 |
| Status | Inactive |
| Security class | Maximum-minimum |
| Opened | 1961 |
| Closed | 2011 |
| Managed by | South African government |
| City | Cape Town |
| Postal code | 7400 |
| Country | South Africa |
| Website | robben-island |
| Notable prisoners | |
| Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe, Jacob Zuma | |
Robben Island Prison is an inactive prison on Robben IslandinTable Bay, 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. Since then, three former inmates of the prison (Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe,[1] and Jacob Zuma) have gone on to become President of South Africa.
It is a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[2][3]
Beginning in 1961, the prison was used by the South African government for political prisoners and convicted criminals. The maximum security prison for political prisoners closed in 1991 and the medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed five years later in 1996.[4]
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For official site names, see each article or the List of World Heritage Sites in South Africa. | ||
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