Mandela is Arrested Near Howick in Natal
On the afternoon of 5 August 1962, Nelson Mandela was wearing his white chauffeur’s dust coat, as Cecil Williams was driving him in an Austin motor car. When they left the industrial precincts of Durban, they moved through hills that offered majestic views of the surrounding valleys and the blue-black waters of the Indian Ocean. Durban was the principal port for South Africa’s main industrial area, and the highway that led to Johannesburg ran parallel to the railway line for a great distance.
Mandela began engaging Cecil about the fact that since the railway line, being so close to the highway, offered a suitable target for sabotage. He then a made a note of this in the small notebook he always carried with him. They were engrossed in discussions about the sabotage plans as they passed through Howick, approximately 32 kilometres northwest of Pietermaritzburg. At Cedara, as they passed through Howick from Pietermaritzburg, Mandela noticed a Ford V8 full of white men, which was advancing to overtake them. As he looked behind, he saw two more cars filled with white men.
After the Ford V8 had overtaken them, it signalled the Austin to stop. Mandela knew at that moment that his life on the run was over, as his seventeen months of “freedom” were about to end. Cecil Williams started to slow down, as there was a steep, wooden bank to the left. He then asked Mandela, “Who are these men?” Mandela decided to remain silent unt
