About The Mandela Capture Site
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela
A Mandela Milestone
The Mandela Capture Site sculpture and Visitor Centre is built very near to the spot where Nelson Mandela was arrested in a police roadblock in 1962. This was to be his last experience of freedom for 27 years.
Nelson Mandela’s story is testament to the power of principle and courage in the fight for peace, freedom, and human dignity. The site of his arrest changed his life – and he went on together with many thousands of others to liberate a nation.
In 1962, on 5 August, this otherwise ordinary piece of road along the R103, approximately five kilometres outside Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, suddenly took on profound consequence. Armed apartheid police flagged down a car in which Nelson Mandela was pretending to be the chauffeur.
Having succeeded in evading capture by apartheid operatives for 17 months, Mandela had just paid a clandestine visit to ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli’s Groutville home to report back on his African travels to seek international support in calling for an armed struggle. It was in this dramatic way, at this unassuming spot, that Nelson Mandela was finally captured and arrested.
This event was a catalyst for the trial that led to his original conviction for inciting a worker stayaway and travelling without a passport. This was a closely linked chain of events that ultimately resulted in his appearance as accused number 1 at the Rivonia Trial and his sentence of life imprisonment.
Prior to the project at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site, his arrest was marked by a modest monument along the R103 consisting of a plaque set into a face-brick wall. As one of the historically important moments in the struggle against apartheid, a more appropriate and exciting mark of the site was needed, which has now been realised.
With the purchase of the farm opposite the monument site, it became possible to mark the Nelson Mandela Capture Site as a major destination in South Africa for our citizens and international visitors to engage with Nelson Mandela’s legacy.
At this site, he disappeared from public view for 27 years. So began his long walk to freedom, which symbolically culminated in his reappearance here on the 50th anniversary of that fateful day.
The 50th anniversary of Mandela’s capture was dramatically commemorated in a creative manner with the introduction of a powerful sculpture. This is set into the environment of this silently potent space in the Midlands landscape of KwaZulu-Natal on a section of road that altered the course of South African history.
Mandela
Sculpture
Mandela Capture
Site
School Tours
Events
Visit the Mandela Sculpture and
Capture Site Visitor Centre
Our vision is to offer a range of activities for both local and international visitors
The Capture Site has a range of ongoing projects to upgrade its facilities to ensure a premium museum experience. All projects are undertaken with the local community in mind – engaging with nearby businesses and community members to create employment opportunities and support existing local enterprises.
