MANDELA CAPTURED – AUGUST 5, 1962, R103 HOWICK | THE SAD DAY ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

MANDELA CAPTURED – AUGUST 5, 1962, R103 HOWICK | THE SAD DAY ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

August 5, 1962. R103, just outside Howick.

He was 44 years old. For 17 months he had not slept in his own bed. He was David Motsamayi – chauffeur, cap pulled low, driving his boss Cecil Williams back to Johannesburg.

But under that uniform was Rolihlahla Mandela. A father who missed his children. A lawyer who had just come from seeing Chief Albert Luthuli in Groutville, begging for support for a war he didn’t want but knew was coming.

He was tired. He thought he was safe.

The police car was already waiting on the R103. Sergeant Vorster stepped out. They knew his name. They knew the car. Someone had told them.

They handcuffed him there on the side of the road. The hills of KwaZulu-Natal behind him, the road to freedom in front of him, closed.

He didn’t cry. He didn’t fight. Witnesses said he looked down at the cuffs, then out at the veld, as if he already knew – this 5-minute stop would cost him 27 years of his life. No Winnie. No children growing up. No birthdays. Just a small cell on Robben Island.

He was sentenced to 5 years for leaving the country without a passport and for inciting workers to strike. He thought he would be out by 1967. He didn’t know the police would find Rivonia. He didn’t know he was about to become prisoner 466/64.

That sad moment on a rural highway wasn’t the end of his story. It was the beginning of our freedom.

If you were there on that road that day, what would you have said to him?

Do you think he knew, even then, that he would one day forgive them?

Could YOU have endured 27 years for what you believe in?

What does freedom mean to you today because he gave up his?

Would you visit the Capture Site in Howick to stand where he fell?

Comment his name, as recognizing his legacy