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SPORT & OUTDOOR
27 For Freedom Run
Venue: Paarl. Tel: (021) 883 2413.
Time: 6:30am
Price: R5 - R80
Performances: 13 Feb 2010
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The race will start at the Drakenstein Correctional Services
(former Victor Verster Prison, just outside Paarl) and participants can
choose between an exciting 27km, 10km or 5km route as well as a 10km
wheelchair route. The brainchild of the Cape Winelands District
Municipality who partnered with Drakenstein Correctional Services, the 27
For Freedom Run aims to commemorate the 27 years that Mr. Nelson Mandela
spent in prison for campaigning against apartheid.
The race will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his release
from the then Victor Verster Prison, where he spent the last 18 months of
his 27 year sentence. Through this race we hope to acknowledge and
celebrate the road that all South Africans have travelled since that
memorable day in 1990.
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According to Mr Jeremy Matheyse, Area Commissioner of
Drakenstein Correctional Services, the goal of the race is to invite
people from all walks of life to follow the footsteps of Madiba, hence the
inclusion of a 27km race – a kilometre for every year he spent in prison.
“Furthermore we wish to create a platform for ordinary people to
commemorate the 20th year of freedom for former President Nelson Mandela
and to honour him for his contributions towards building a true non-racial
and democratic society, a turning point in the history of South Africa,”
says Mr Matheyse.
In August 2008, a statue of Mr. Nelson Mandela, aptly named
the Long Walk to Freedom Statue, was unveiled by the Tokyo Sexwale
Foundation at Drakenstein Correctional Services as a symbol of Freedom and
Achievement. The 27 For Freedom Run presented by the Cape Winelands
District Municipality and the Drakenstein Correctional Services will start
at this statue. Participants can also look forward to passing the house
in which Nelson Mandela lived for the 18-month period of his
incarceration. The site was declared a National Heritage Site in July
2008, but is not yet open to the public.
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