Nelson Mandela Capture Site

In 1962, on 5 August, this otherwise ordinary piece of road along the R103, approximately five kilometers 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 odyssey, and to request 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.

As one of the historically important moments in the struggle against Apartheid, the Nelson Mandela Capture site has become a major destination in South Africa for citizens and international visitors to engage with Nelson Mandela’s legacy. His disappearance from public view at this site into incarceration for 27 years along his long walk to freedom symbolically culminated in his reappearance here on the 50th anniversary of that fateful day.