In 1959 the Island became a maximum security prison and between 1961 and 1991 over three thousand men were incarcerated there as political prisoners. Amongst the incarcerated were the first democratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Nelson Mandela and current South African Deputy President Mr Kgalema Mothlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners who spent decades imprisoned there during the apartheid era. Among those political prisoners was also current South African President Mr Jacob Zuma, who was imprisoned there for ten years.