Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. It was here that former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe,alongside many other political prisoners, spent 27 years imprisoned during the apartheid era.
The African National Congress (ANC) is South Africa´s governing political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a "disciplined force of the left".