bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Cape Town is known for the diversity of its restaurants, but the strangest has to be at Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, once home to South Africa’s liberation icon Nelson Mandela.
The Pollsmoor Restaurant – slogan: Idlanathi (“Eat with us”) – is open to the public, the waiters are prisoners, and so are most of the kitchen staff.
It is not a tourist attraction like Robben Island, where Mandela spent most of his 27 years in jail and which is now a museum.
South Africa's Cape provinces, a monster motorbike and a few close calls with the wildlife
It’s just a restaurant in one of the toughest prisons in the country where anyone can go for a meal – unless they would prefer the exclusive wine estate directly across the road.
Pollsmoor, set among the upmarket suburbs of Constantia Valley, is notorious not only for Mandela’s stay there from 1982 to 1988 but for the violent gangs that rule its unsanitary and overcrowded cells.
In contrast, the restaurant was spotlessly clean and almost deserted when AFP visited for lunch, apart from a scattering of burly warders in brown uniforms and one couple from the world outside.
“The service is nice, the food is good and is very cheap,” says Arnold Daniels, a 57-year-old businessman, explaining why he and his wife, Merina, are regulars at the restaurant.
Do they not find it a bit odd to eat a leisurely lunch while thousands of prisoners are cooped up in nearby cells?
“It doesn’t bother us,” says Daniels. “It’s not really strange. It’s very safe and we don’t feel threatened at all.”
The decor of the restaurant, which can seat about 30 people, is, perhaps fittingly, spartan. The metal chairs have red plastic seats, the walls are bare and the floor is scrubbed tile.
But the impenetrable security gates across the French windows are partly hidden by curtains in red and brown with gold piping. And the table mats boast a colourful African mask design.
Fans turn lethargically on the ceiling and pop music is piped continuously into the restaurant.
Wearing prison orange trousers under his apron, the waiter greets guests cheerfully and recommends the steak.
The menu is extensive, ranging from “traditional tripe” and ox head to chicken schnitzel, beef cordon bleu and a seafood platter – which, at 60 rand (HK$30) is the most expensive dish.
The waiter says he was given four years in jail for shoplifting.

He has seven months left to serve and hopes to get a job in hospitality when he is released. The prison would help with a reference, he says.
The food is good, and the presentation worthy of a MasterChef contestant, with herbs and sauces drizzled around the plate.
After the meal, one of the cooks, also in orange prison gear under his apron, steps into an enclosed courtyard alongside the restaurant for a cigarette.
He is serving five years for car theft, although he insists he didn’t steal the car himself, simply bought it off someone else.
“But I’m lucky to only get five years, because car theft is a very serious offence,” he muses.
He describes working in the restaurant as “one of the best jobs in the prison”, but won’t be drawn on life in the cells. “It’s prison,” is all he will say.
Pollsmoor has about 8,000 inmates – twice its capacity – living in conditions described in a report by a judge last year as “deeply disturbing” and “inhumane and appalling”.
Tuberculosis is rife – Mandela contracted TB there – and at least one inmate died last year of leptospirosis, a disease spread by rats.
The restaurant closes at 2pm. Diners head for their cars and the gates, while the waiters and cooks are taken back to their cells and locked up until the breakfast service begins.
Across the road is another high-security, electrified fence, marking the borders of the Steenberg wine and golf estate, but this fence is designed to keep people out, not in.
Traditional Cape Dutch-style gabled white buildings with thatched roofs cluster among expansive green lawns and vineyards against a mountain backdrop.
At Catherina’s award-winning restaurant, under umbrellas on the patio, the lunch crowd is dominated by tourists from Europe and the United States.
The menu boasts “sustainable” fish for its ecologically concerned upmarket diners. The fish turns out to be hake – the same as that offered at the Pollsmoor prison restaurant, at four times the price.


Prison food never tasted so good: the Cape Town restaurant staffed by inmates  

Pollsmoor Prison, Cape Town is notorious for its violent gangs and overcrowded cells. Living conditions were described in a report by a judge last year as “deeply disturbing” and “inhumane and appalling”. Photo: AFP.

This handout image shows The Pollsmoor Restaurant in Cape Town. The city is known for the diversity of its restaurants, but the strangest has to be at Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, once home to South AfricaÕs liberation icon Nelson Mandela. The Pollsmoor Restaurant -- slogan: Idlanathi (ÒEat with usÓ) -- is open to the public, the waiters are prisoners, and so are most of the kitchen staff. [05JUNE2016 FEATURE ONLINE]

Nelson Mandela, former South African President and Pollsmoor Prison's most famous former prisoner addresses inmates at the launch of the Virgin Active Pollsmoor Prison Project at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town 20 March 2002. Virgin Active, a chain of health and fitness clubs, donated surplus fitness equipment to the prison and equipped four gyms for the use of prisoners and warders. AFP PHOTO/ANNA ZIEMINSKI

This handout image shows a menu from The Pollsmoor Restaurant in Cape Town. The city is known for the diversity of its restaurants, but the strangest has to be at Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, once home to South AfricaÕs liberation icon Nelson Mandela. The Pollsmoor Restaurant -- slogan: Idlanathi (ÒEat with usÓ) -- is open to the public, the waiters are prisoners, and so are most of the kitchen staff. [05JUNE2016 FEATURE ONLINE]

This handout image shows sign for The Pollsmoor Restaurant in Cape Town. The city is known for the diversity of its restaurants, but the strangest has to be at Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, once home to South AfricaÕs liberation icon Nelson Mandela. The Pollsmoor Restaurant -- slogan: Idlanathi (ÒEat with usÓ) -- is open to the public, the waiters are prisoners, and so are most of the kitchen staff. [05JUNE2016 FEATURE ONLINE]

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

The Pollsmoor prison restaurant in South Africa offers the public good food and MasterChef-level presentation at prices far more competitive than the exclusive wine estate across the road
