He was beaten and shocked with live wires of electricity, he said, and police dangled him by his ankles outside a window six stories over the street. “Somebody could offer you the best meal and you would not know how to enjoy it,’’ he said.
I asked him how he survived mentally. “We knew what we were fighting for. When you have a purpose you can control the emotions. We looked at it as if we were developing our political careers.’’
That is clearly not the most carefree way to lead off an article on the dizzying array of natural and historical enticements in the Western Cape. But if you come to this city - and many of you will next year for soccer’s 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa - you must take the disarmingly beautiful ferry ride to Robben Island, with Table Mountain receding in the background and penguins floating in the water below, to appreciate how far South Africa has come in the 15 years since its first multiracial elections ended apartheid.
High prices no longer required to view Kruger’s riches. M4 .
Before we even got to the prison, we were taken on a bus ride around the island to learn lesser-known but critical aspects of the fight against apartheid. The bus stopped for a few minutes at a small house that was built for Robert Sobukwe, who led the mass resistance to pass laws that ended in the 1960 Sharpeville massacre where police shot and killed 68 peaceful protesters.
“He is a forgotten man now,’’ bus guide Yasien Mohamed said of Sobukwe. “But he was the only person deemed so dangerous they built his own house to isolate him. He was apartheid’s most dangerous man.’’
