Statue of Nelson Mandela, Union Buildings, Bronze statue at Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa

The Nelson Mandela statue stands on the grounds of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, below the esplanade. The 9-metre bronze figure shows Mandela smiling in a shirt with his arms open, a pose compared to Rio's Christ the Redeemer. It measures 8 metres from fingertip to fingertip and was cast in 147 pieces at four foundries.

The memorial was unveiled in December 2013 following Mandela's death, replacing an earlier statue of a historical leader that had occupied the site. Its installation marked a symbolic shift at the government complex from apartheid-era symbols to monuments celebrating freedom and democracy.

Jacob Zuma noted at the 2013 unveiling that this Mandela stretches out his hands rather than raising a fist, as in other statues, to embrace the whole nation. The open-armed pose, compared to Rio's Christ the Redeemer, is the detail crowds respond to. The Day of Reconciliation unveiling ties the figure to 16 December, a South African public holiday.

The statue stands in the gardens below the Union Buildings esplanade in Pretoria, on the spot formerly occupied by the J.B.M. Hertzog statue, which was moved elsewhere in the grounds on 22 November 2013. Approach it on foot from the lower garden level; the figure is 9 metres tall and 8 metres from fingertip to fingertip, so it can be viewed from a distance as well as up close.

A tiny rabbit was secretly cast inside the statue's right ear by sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, a play on the Afrikaans word "haas", meaning both rabbit and quickly. It was spotted in January 2014, and the Department of Arts and Culture had it removed after the artists apologised.