|
 With revolutionary songs, some raised fists and tributes to
"Comrade Mandela", the former liberation movement to which Mandela
had dedicated his life said farewell at the Waterkloof airforce base
in the capital of Pretoria.
"Go well 'Tata', you have played your part," South African President
and ANC leader Jacob Zuma said in a eulogy using the Xhosa word for
"father". He recalled Mandela's life as a freedom fighter in the
armed struggle against white minority rule, for which he was put in
jail for 27 years.
"We will always remember you," Zuma said, before bellowing the ANC
struggle slogan of "Amandla" (Power).
The ANC send-off led by Zuma, attended by Mandela's widow Graca
Machel and his former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, came after
nine days of intense and emotion-charged mourning and memorial
activities held in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
This included three days of lying in state at the Union Buildings in
Pretoria from Wednesday to Friday in which more than 100,000 people
queued for hours to say a last personal goodbye to the nation's
first black president.
One of Mandela's grandchildren, Mandla, thanked those who had come
to pay their respects to the Nobel peace laureate.
"I have witnessed his army, I have witnessed his people, I have
witnessed ordinary South Africans who walked this long walk to
freedom with him and I can assure the African National Congress
today that the future of this country looks bright."
Escorted by fighter jets, Mandela's body was being flown by South
Africa's airforce to his Eastern Cape home region, where it would be
taken to the family home at Qunu, a village among rolling green
hills, 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg.
There, a state funeral will take place on Sunday combining military
pomp and traditional rites of Mandela's Xhosa abaThembu clan. It
will be attended by family members, national leaders and foreign
guests including Britain's Prince Charles and U.S. civil rights
activist Reverend Jessie Jackson.
In Saturday's ANC homage, the most overtly political event of the
mourning period since Mandela died on December 5 aged 95, leaders of
the ruling party and allied trade unions hailed Mandela as a
determined "soldier" and revolutionary.
They spoke before Mandela's coffin, draped in the green and yellow
ANC flag in an airport hangar prepared for the event.
The ANC event was in deep contrast to Tuesday's mass public memorial
in Johannesburg where Zuma, who has ruled since 2009, was subjected
to a humiliating barrage of boos and jeers, a worrying sign for the
ruling party six months before elections.
[to top of second column] |
"WE NEED MORE MADIBAS"
There was no such dissonant note on Saturday, with speaker after
speaker hailing the lifelong link between the former president and
the ANC which will be one of the party's strongest campaigning
pillars for the coming elections.
Representatives from left-wing parties, such as Angola's MPLA, and
Ireland's Sinn Fein, attended Saturday's homage.
Zuma, who is widely criticized for being weak and ineffective,
addressed the leadership issue in his speech.
"The question is, can we produce as ANC other 'Madibas'?" he asked,
using Mandela's Xhosa clan name.
"We need more Madibas so that our country can prosper. Yes we are
free, but the challenges of inequality remain."
It is precisely his government's perceived failure to tackle this
inequality, manifested in still widespread poverty and chronic
joblessness, which has fed dissatisfaction with Zuma and the ANC
that will erode their support in the coming vote. But the party that
has governed since the end of apartheid in 1994 is expected to
comfortably win the elections.
Sunday's funeral at Qunu, planned as more intimate than the mass
memorial held on Tuesday attended by a host of world leaders, will
bring together members of Mandela's family and Xhosa abaThembu clan
and a smaller group of dignitaries.
These include African and Caribbean leaders, Iranian Vice President
Mohammad Shariatmadari, Lesotho's King Letsie III and former French
Prime Ministers Lionel Jospin and Alain Juppe.
Mandela's casket will be taken in military procession from Mthatha
in the Eastern Cape about 45 km to Qunu, allowing locals a chance to
say goodbye to their most famous son.
The week of mourning since Mandela's death has not been without
controversy.
Besides the booing of Zuma, there has also been a storm of outrage
over a sign-language interpreter accused of miming nonsense at the
same memorial. The signer has defended himself, saying he suffered a
schizophrenic episode.
(Additional reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo;
writing by Pascal
Fletcher; editing by Louise Ireland)
[© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
