From which prison was Nelson Mandela released on 11 February 1990?

Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison on 11 February 1990.

Victor Verster, near Paarl in the Cape Province, was the final prison in which Mandela was held. He had previously spent years at Robben Island and Pollsmoor Prison. At Victor Verster, he lived in a house on the prison grounds rather than in a standard prison cell while negotiations with the government continued.

President F. W. de Klerk ordered Mandela’s release after the government lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other liberation organizations. Mandela walked out through the prison gates with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and addressed a huge crowd in Cape Town later that day.

The prison is sometimes confused with Pollsmoor because Mandela was transferred there in 1982. Victor Verster identifies the final location of his imprisonment and the place from which he entered public life again.