(Corrects dateline. For more on Mandela, see EXT8.)
South Africa will expand Nelson Mandela’s memorial service to cater for at least 200,000 people, more than first planned, as ordinary citizens to international heads of state clamor to pay tribute to the former president.
Three additional sports facilities, including the Ellis Park ground in Johannesburg, will screen the Dec. 10 service taking place at the city’s FNB Stadium, host of the 2010 Soccer World Cup final, the government said. Representatives from countries including the U.S. will attend the service, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said today.
South Africa is three days into a 10-day mourning period after Mandela, who brought an end to white-minority rule by becoming the first black president in 1994, died at his home in Johannesburg on Dec. 5. He was 95. President Jacob Zuma asked the nation to come together in prayer, with services held nationwide attended by thousands of worshippers.
“The world is coming to us from tomorrow with an unprecedented number of visitors,” Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, said at a memorial event. “We pay tribute today to the man that is bringing the whole world to South Africa again, who even in his death can unite a nation.”
[h=2]State Heads[/h]The body of Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years for fighting apartheid, will lie in state in Pretoria from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 before a funeral in his home town of Qunu in the Eastern Cape province on Dec. 15.
Current and former presidents of the U.S., France and Brazil will fly to South Africa to pay tribute to Mandela. The U.K.’s Prince Charles will attend Mandela’s funeral, while 13 heads of African countries, including Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, are making the journey.
“Government is doing all it can to allow as many people as possible to be part of these official events, but there are limits to how many people we can reasonably accommodate,” the presidency’s Chabane said in a statement today. The four stadiums together can seat about 215,000 people, according to capacities reported on their websites.
About 9,000 mourners are expected to attend the funeral in Qunu, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, according to the government.
[h=2]Qunu Preparations[/h]Road workers in Qunu were today seeking to finish the uncompleted section of the N2 highway that passes Mandela’s homestead. They were tarring sections of the road, painting lines and constructing culverts and ballustrades. A 4,000-seat stand is being erected in the south-east corner of the homestead’s grounds, where the funeral will take place.
Mourners have flocked to Mandela’s house in Houghton, Johannesburg, to pay their respects, leaving flowers and messages, while some sang and danced. Worshippers today also gathered in cities including Cape Town and Soweto, the township where Mandela lived as a young adult, to pray for the statesman.
“Madiba paved the way for a better future but he cannot do it alone,” said Father Sebastian Rossouw, acting parish priest of Soweto’s Regina Mundi church, referring to Mandela’s clan name. “He needs you, me and the world to continue in the foundation he laid.”
Regina Mundi is South Africa’s biggest Catholic church and was a haven for activists during minority-white rule under the apartheid system of racial segregation.
[h=2]‘Don’t Forget’[/h]Zuma sat beside Mandela’s second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and grandson Mandla Mandela amid about 700 congregants at the Methodist church in Bryanston, an affluent and mainly white area in northern Johannesburg. About 60 children sat before the congregation, which clapped, swayed and sang the favorite hymns of Mandela’s mother in the Xhosa language, accompanied by an African djembe drum.
“Let’s pray that we don’t forget some of the values that Madiba stood for, that he fought for, that he sacrificed his life for,” Zuma said. “He stood for freedom. And he actively participated to remove the obstacles to freedom for the people of South Africa. He believed in forgiving and he forgave, even those who kept him in jail for 27 years.”
When Mandela’s body is lying in state, mourners will be allowed to file past his open casket, which will be protected by a transparent covering, while a static camera feed will be located at the venue for broadcast, Neo Momodu, a spokeswoman for the Government Communication and Information Service, told reporters in Johannesburg yesterday.
People will be allowed to line the streets along the route when Mandela’s remains are transported to and from the morgue to the Union Buildings over the three days, Momodu said.
Mandela encouraged reconciliation after becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994 when apartheid ended. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 together with F.W. de Klerk, the last white president, for negotiating a peaceful end to apartheid.
To contact the reporters on this story: Rene Vollgraaff in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Janice Kew in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Robert Brand in Cape Town at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at [email protected]
South Africa will expand Nelson Mandela’s memorial service to cater for at least 200,000 people, more than first planned, as ordinary citizens to international heads of state clamor to pay tribute to the former president.
Three additional sports facilities, including the Ellis Park ground in Johannesburg, will screen the Dec. 10 service taking place at the city’s FNB Stadium, host of the 2010 Soccer World Cup final, the government said. Representatives from countries including the U.S. will attend the service, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said today.
South Africa is three days into a 10-day mourning period after Mandela, who brought an end to white-minority rule by becoming the first black president in 1994, died at his home in Johannesburg on Dec. 5. He was 95. President Jacob Zuma asked the nation to come together in prayer, with services held nationwide attended by thousands of worshippers.
“The world is coming to us from tomorrow with an unprecedented number of visitors,” Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, said at a memorial event. “We pay tribute today to the man that is bringing the whole world to South Africa again, who even in his death can unite a nation.”
[h=2]State Heads[/h]The body of Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years for fighting apartheid, will lie in state in Pretoria from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 before a funeral in his home town of Qunu in the Eastern Cape province on Dec. 15.
Current and former presidents of the U.S., France and Brazil will fly to South Africa to pay tribute to Mandela. The U.K.’s Prince Charles will attend Mandela’s funeral, while 13 heads of African countries, including Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, are making the journey.
“Government is doing all it can to allow as many people as possible to be part of these official events, but there are limits to how many people we can reasonably accommodate,” the presidency’s Chabane said in a statement today. The four stadiums together can seat about 215,000 people, according to capacities reported on their websites.
About 9,000 mourners are expected to attend the funeral in Qunu, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, according to the government.
[h=2]Qunu Preparations[/h]Road workers in Qunu were today seeking to finish the uncompleted section of the N2 highway that passes Mandela’s homestead. They were tarring sections of the road, painting lines and constructing culverts and ballustrades. A 4,000-seat stand is being erected in the south-east corner of the homestead’s grounds, where the funeral will take place.
Mourners have flocked to Mandela’s house in Houghton, Johannesburg, to pay their respects, leaving flowers and messages, while some sang and danced. Worshippers today also gathered in cities including Cape Town and Soweto, the township where Mandela lived as a young adult, to pray for the statesman.
“Madiba paved the way for a better future but he cannot do it alone,” said Father Sebastian Rossouw, acting parish priest of Soweto’s Regina Mundi church, referring to Mandela’s clan name. “He needs you, me and the world to continue in the foundation he laid.”
Regina Mundi is South Africa’s biggest Catholic church and was a haven for activists during minority-white rule under the apartheid system of racial segregation.
[h=2]‘Don’t Forget’[/h]Zuma sat beside Mandela’s second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and grandson Mandla Mandela amid about 700 congregants at the Methodist church in Bryanston, an affluent and mainly white area in northern Johannesburg. About 60 children sat before the congregation, which clapped, swayed and sang the favorite hymns of Mandela’s mother in the Xhosa language, accompanied by an African djembe drum.
“Let’s pray that we don’t forget some of the values that Madiba stood for, that he fought for, that he sacrificed his life for,” Zuma said. “He stood for freedom. And he actively participated to remove the obstacles to freedom for the people of South Africa. He believed in forgiving and he forgave, even those who kept him in jail for 27 years.”
When Mandela’s body is lying in state, mourners will be allowed to file past his open casket, which will be protected by a transparent covering, while a static camera feed will be located at the venue for broadcast, Neo Momodu, a spokeswoman for the Government Communication and Information Service, told reporters in Johannesburg yesterday.
People will be allowed to line the streets along the route when Mandela’s remains are transported to and from the morgue to the Union Buildings over the three days, Momodu said.
Mandela encouraged reconciliation after becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994 when apartheid ended. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 together with F.W. de Klerk, the last white president, for negotiating a peaceful end to apartheid.
To contact the reporters on this story: Rene Vollgraaff in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Janice Kew in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Robert Brand in Cape Town at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at [email protected]