The cheery green sign reads, “A place of new beginnings” – but for Sibusiso Bulose it may as well have said, “The end”. He was just 26 when he was arrested for crimes he did not commit. Two years later he was sentenced to life in prison.
When Sibusiso, of Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal, arrived at Westville Prison in Durban in 2006, Thabo Mbeki was president, the 2010 Fifa World Cup was years away and the virus that had the world on edge was bird flu.
When he was finally released last month – 14 years later – Mzansi had had three presidents since Mbeki, the World Cup was a distant memory and lockdown was in full effect.