Robben Island tour as dull as ever
● Nelson Mandela famously said that the measure of a country is its prisons. If he could see what has happened to Robben Island, where he spent 18 years, he would know South Africa is still a land of missed opportunities.
The former maximum security prisonturned World Heritage Site is a tourist attraction still churning out the same itinerary as 20 years ago.
Even the tour guides seemed bored this week as the service went through the motions of busing tourists at R600 a ticket (R400 for locals) past a handful of historic landmarks: the limestone quarry where political prisoners once hewed rock; the “private prison” of PAC leader Robert Sobukwe; and the main prison complex where tourists viewed Mandela’s old cell. The longest stop was for snacks at a designated refreshment station.
This week’s tour began with an hour-long wait in the queue at the V&A Waterfront island ferry office. We boarded one of a fleet of private contracted ferries used when the island’s own ferries are unavailable. The crossing lasted about 45 minutes.
On arrival we were shepherded onto a pair of buses and given a quick history lesson from a friendly tour guide.
The prison facilities and small village were clean, albeit rather bleak, with an air of faded relevance — possibly unintentional. Various island development plans over the years have produced little by way of visible improvements, amid calls for a major revamp to breathe new life into the site. Innovations such as solar power and new boreholes have been overshadowed by multiple forensic reports into alleged island mismanagement and a controversial ferry tender. Meanwhile, questions were raised about the CEO’s salary of R2.4m a year.
The second half of the tour explored the prison complex, with visits to various sections and a lengthy briefing about the resilience of political prisoners in the face of warder abuse.
Visitors were escorted into the prison courtyard where Mandela once tended a small garden, part of which survives today. Photographs suggest the garden, having prospered so long under Madiba’s watch, is not flourishing in the care of the department of sport, arts & culture.