Lunch at Pollsmoor Prison

Most people believe as I did that Nelson Mandela spent his entire 27 years of incarceration on Robben Island. Not true. He spent the first 18 years on Robben Island before being transferred to Pollsmoor Prison south of Cape Town. He stayed there for another six years before being transferred again to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl where he stayed until he was finally released in 1990.

Vince had heard from a colleague that you could visit Pollsmoor and have lunch there. Since we had already visited Robben Island on this trip with our guests, we thought we'd surprise them with lunch at Pollsmoor Prison. Pollsmoor Maximum Security prison is located in Tokai about 25 km south of Cape Town. Some of South Africa's most dangerous criminals are held there. The inmates, low security prisoners in orange, cook and serve lunch in the Pollsmoor Prison Restaurant Idanathi which means "eat with us."

The menu is compiled by the Pollsmoor Restaurant staff and offers a good collection of sandwiches, fried, grills and traditional meals in a canteen-style dining room.














The ambiance is low key and the prices are cheap, cheap cheap!

I don't know why I thought it was funny that they serve a Ladies Rump. At least it wasn't a Lady's Rump!

I didn't feel comfortable asking to take a picture with the prisoners so I used Ric in front of the South African flag as my decoy to snap this one of an orange jump-suited prisoner.

PS No tipping is allowed!