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Durban – Just outside Howick in KwaZulu-Natal stands a steel monument celebrating Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa
Designed by artist Marco Cianfanelli, sculpture measures 10m high and is made of 50 steel columns anchored in a concrete base. The image of Mandela comes to focus and is visible when standing about 35m from the sculpture.
It is here that Mandela was arrested disguised as a driver by the name of war David Motsamayi, a few months after founding the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
He had recently returned from a trip across Africa to support the new Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), or "Spear of the Nation".
He was arrested while illegally traveling He was imprisoned for five years for organizing an illegal conference abroad and for leaving the country without authorization, before being sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, when he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The authorities discovered that he was at the head of the military wing of the ANC.
He spent 27 years in prison.
"On that day, August 5, 1962, Madiba's trip as a clandestine revolutionary ended abruptly. On the other hand, the police had known in advance that one of the nation's most wanted men would be posing that day as a driver delivering his employer to Johannesburg. The police were well prepared.
"Without wanting to, they had planned the disappearance of their regime by opening a chapter of our history that opened the floodgates of freedom for those of us who had long lived under oppression," KBAZulu-Natal, cooperative governance and traditional business. Ncube said:
"Nelson Mandela's capture site is therefore one of the most important sites in the quest for the liberation movement to liberate our nation."
Later, Mandela wrote in his autobiography: "In Cedara, a small town just after Howick, I noticed a Ford V8 filled with whites overtaking us on the right." 19659002 "I instinctively returned to look behind and saw two other cars filled with white men.All in front of us, the Ford was beckoning us to stop.
" I knew at that moment my runaway life was over, my 17 months of "freedom" was about to end. "
Clarissa Jones visited the site prior to Mandela's Centennial celebrations Video: Motshwari Mofokeng / African News Agency
IOL and ANA
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