People pray at an ANC party meeting outside the home of Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg yesterday where he died the day before.
AFP/Johannesburg
The world yesterday mourned South Africa’s beloved Nelson Mandela, the iconic anti-apartheid hero and endearing former statesman who was hailed universally as an “incredible gift” to humanity.
Mandela’s “rainbow nation” awoke to a future without its founding father and its first black president, after he died late on Thursday aged 95 at his Johannesburg home surrounded by friends and family.
South African President Jacob Zuma announced a 10-day mourning period that will include a huge December 10 memorial service attended by various heads of state. US President Barack Obama’s office confirmed he would be among them.
Three days of Mandela’s body lying in state in Pretoria will follow, and then on December 15 a state funeral will take place to bury his remains in his birthtown of Qunu.
As his compatriots paid lively tributes to the revered former statesman with flowers, songs and dance, admirers from all walks of life around the world joined in an outpouring of emotion, lauding Mandela’s legacy and remembering key moments in the great man’s life.
South Africa’s archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, a fellow Nobel prize winner, praised Mandela as an “incredible gift that God gave us”.
In an address where he fought to hold back the tears, Tutu said his old friend was “a unifier from the moment he walked out of prison”.
Mandela spent 27 years in an apartheid prison before becoming president and unifying his country with a message of reconciliation after the end of white minority rule. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with South Africa’s last white president, F W de Klerk, in 1993.
Palestinians and Israelis, Beijing and the Dalai Lama, Washington and Tehran all paid heartfelt tribute to Mandela, describing him as one of the towering figures of the 20th century who inspired young and old with his fight for equality.
Obama, his own country’s first black president, led a global roll call of commemorations.
“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again,” the US leader said. “He achieved more than could be expected of any man.”
Flags flew at half-mast in numerous countries, including the US, France and Britain, and at the UN headquarters in New York.
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower lit up in green, red, yellow and blue to symbolise the South African flag, while India declared five days of mourning for a man the premier labelled “a true Gandhian”.
And a Paris summit of some 40 African leaders was overshadowed by Mandela’s death. An old associate, African Union Commission president Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, said Mandela “was a son who became larger than the continent”.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the best way to remember Mandela was to free the African continent of poverty, unrest and disease.
“We will do it in your name,” she said.
In Brazil, organisers of the 2014 football World Cup flashed Mandela’s image up on a giant screen and held a minute’s silence before the groups’ draw.
While the ailing former statesman’s death had long been expected after a spate of hospitalisations, the announcement came as a burst of searing sadness nonetheless.
Mandela had waged a long battle against a recurring lung infection and had been receiving treatment at home since September following a lengthy hospital stay.
Outside his house in the upmarket Houghton suburb and at his former residence in the once blacks-only township of Soweto, scores of well-wishers danced and sang old songs of struggle to celebrate the man they lovingly call Madiba. His December 10 memorial service will take place in a 90,000-plus capacity Soweto stadium.
South Africans of all races and ages gathered yesterday in Cape Town at the site where Mandela gave his first speech as a free man after walking out of prison in 1990.
Mirriam Movali, 47, was in the crowd that welcomed Mandela 23 years ago.
“I was also here. That day, it was so emotional, same as today,” she said.
Mandela is survived by three daughters, 18 grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and three step-grandchildren. He had four step-children through his marriage to Machel.
Qatar sends cables of condolences
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent cables of condolences to South African President Jacob Zuma on the demise of African leader and former South African president Nelson Mandela.