The genesis of the project at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site and the installation of an internationally recognizable sculpture in the Natal Midlands landscape is a response to the modest original monument on the site consisting of a plaque set into a wall on the side of the road.

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, a more appropriate and exciting marking of the site was needed which has now been realized and erected.