In 2014, world renowned street artist, Shepard Fairey created a 8-storey public artwork on the wall of Play’s 155 Smit Street in Braamfontein (and seen from Juta Street). Fairey’s mural of Nelson Mandela (one of his personal heroes) forms part of ‘The Purple Shall Govern’ – an international multi-platform project commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Purple Rain Protests which took place on 2 September 1989.

THE STORY

On that day, a police water canon with purple dye was turned on thousands of Mass Democratic Movement supporters who poured into the city of Cape Town in an attempt to march on South Africa’s parliament. The Nelson Mandela Mural is Shepard Fairey’s first work in Africa and is seen by many as a sequel to Fairey’s iconic Barack Obama HOPE poster and has since become a Braamfontein icon.