JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) — South Africans
united in mourning for Nelson Mandela on Friday, but while some
celebrated his remarkable life with dance and song, others fretted that
the anti-apartheid hero's death would make the nation vulnerable again
to racial and social tensions.
As the country's 52 million people absorbed the news that their
beloved former president had departed forever, many expressed shock
at the passing of a man who was a global symbol of reconciliation
and peaceful co-existence.
South Africans heard from President Jacob Zuma late on Thursday that
the statesman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate died peacefully at his
Johannesburg home in the company of his family after a long illness.
Despite reassurances from public figures that Mandela's passing,
while sorrowful, would not halt South Africa's advance away from its
bitter apartheid past, some still expressed unease about the absence
of a man famed as a peacemaker.
"It's not going to be good, hey! I think it's going to become a more
racist country. People will turn on each other and chase foreigners
away," said Sharon Qubeka, 28, a secretary from Tembisa township as
she headed to work in Johannesburg.
"Mandela was the only one who kept things together," she said.
Flags flew at half mast as South Africa entered a period of mourning
leading up to a planned state funeral for its first black president
next week.
Trade was halted for five minutes on the Johannesburg stock
exchange, Africa's largest bourse, out of respect.
But the mood was not all somber. Hundreds filled the streets around
Mandela's home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, many
singing songs of tribute and dancing.
The crowd included toddlers carrying flowers, domestic workers still
in uniform and businessmen in suits.
Many attended church services, including another veteran
anti-apartheid campaigner, former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Desmond Tutu. He said that like all South Africans he was
"devastated" by Mandela's death.
"Let us give him the gift of a South Africa united, one," Tutu said,
holding a mass in Cape Town's St George's Cathedral.
An avalanche of tributes continued to pour in for Mandela, who had
been ailing for nearly a year with a recurring lung illness dating
back to the 27 years he spent in apartheid jails, including the
notorious Robben Island penal colony.
U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron
were among world leaders who paid tributes to him as a moral giant
and exemplary beacon.
The loss was also keenly felt across the African continent. "We are
in trouble now, Africa. No one will fit Mandela's shoes," said
Kenyan teacher Catherine Ochieng, 32.
POLITICIANS NOW "NOTHING LIKE MANDELA"
For South Africa, the death of its most beloved leader comes at a
time when the nation, which basked in global goodwill after
apartheid ended, has been experiencing labor unrest, growing
protests against poor services, poverty, crime and unemployment and
corruption scandals tainting Zuma's rule.
Many saw today's South Africa — the African continent's biggest
economy but also one of the world's most unequal — still distant
from being the "Rainbow Nation" ideal of social peace and shared
prosperity that Mandela had proclaimed on his triumphant release
from prison in 1990.
"I feel like I lost my father, someone who would look out for me,"
said Joseph Nkosi, 36, a security guard from Alexandra township in
Johannesburg.
Referring to Mandela by his clan name, he added: "Now without Madiba
I feel like I don't have a chance. The rich will get richer and
simply forget about us. The poor don't matter to them. Look at our
politicians, they are nothing like Madiba."
The crowd around Mandela's home in Houghton preferred to celebrate
his achievement in bringing South Africans together.
For 16-year-old Michael Lowry, who has no memory of the apartheid
system that ended in 1994, Mandela's legacy means he can have
non-white friends. He attended two schools where Mandela's
grandchildren were also students.
"I hear stories that my parents tell me and I'm just shocked that
such a country could exist. I couldn't imagine just going to school
with just white friends," Lowry said.
Shortly after the news of Mandela's death, Tutu had tried to calm
fears that the absence of the man who steered South Africa to
democracy might revive some of the ghosts of apartheid.
"To suggest that South Africa might go up in flames — as some have
predicted — is to discredit South Africans and Madiba's legacy,"
Tutu said in a statement on Thursday.
"The sun will rise tomorrow, and the next day and the next ... It
may not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on," Tutu
said.
MAY HURT ANC IN LONG TERM
Zuma and his ruling African National Congress face presidential and
legislative elections next year which are expected to reveal
discontent among voters about pervasive poverty and unemployment 20
years after the end of apartheid.
But the former liberation movement is expected to maintain its
predominance in South African politics.
Mark Rosenberg, Senior Africa Analyst at the Eurasia Group, said
that while Mandela's death might even give the ANC a sympathy-driven
boost for elections due next year, it would hurt the party in the
long term.
He saw Mandela's absence "sapping the party's historical legitimacy
and encouraging rejection by voters who believe the ANC has failed
to deliver on its economic promises and become mired in corruption."
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white
minority rule — a struggle that gave the 20th century one of its
most respected and loved figures.
He was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in
1960 but was quick to preach reconciliation and forgiveness when the
white minority began easing its grip on power 30 years later.
He was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994
after helping to steer the racially divided country towards
reconciliation and away from civil war.
Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honor he
shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner president who
released him in 1990. Reacting to his death, the Nobel Committee
said Mandela would remain one of the greatest ever prizewinners.
In 1999, Mandela handed over power to younger leaders better
equipped to manage a modern economy — a rare voluntary departure
from power cited as an example to African leaders.
This made him an exception on a continent with a bloody history of
long-serving autocrats and violent coups.
(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley, Dave Dolan, Tiisetso
Motsoeneng, Xola Potelwa and Stella Mapenzauswa in Johannesburg, and
Wendell Roelf in Cape Town, and Michelle Nichols in New York;
Writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Matthew Tostevin and David
Stamp)
