Nelson Mandela
South Africa’s first post-Apartheid president Nelson Mandela died peacefully at his Johannesburg home last night after a prolonged lung infection.He was 95. President Jacob Zuma announced the death in a live broadcast that was carried by major international networks late last night.
Madiba, as Mandela was affectionately known, emerged from 27 years in apartheid prisons to help guide South Africa through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy.
“Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rohlihla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” President Zuma said.
“Our people have lost a father. Although we knew this day was going to come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world. His humility, passion and humanity, earned him their love.”
Mandela would receive a full state funeral, President Zuma said, ordering flags to be flown at half mast. Tributes began pouring in late last night, with United States president Barack Obama saying Mandela “achieved more than any man”.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Mandela “a giant for justice” with the French foreign minister saluting him as “a charismatic giant”.
Irish prime minister Enda Kenny paid tribute to the “gift of Mandela”, and offered the country’s deepest sympathies to the people of South Africa.
“The name Mandela stirred our conscience and our hearts. It became synonymous with the pursuit of dignity and freedom across the globe,” he said in a statement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said “a great light had gone out” following Nelson Mandela’s death, revealing that flags would be flown at half-mast at his Downing Street Office.
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority apartheid government. He was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960.
He was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994 and retired in 1999. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honour he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who released him from jail as arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner.
As president, President Mandela faced the monumental task of forging a new nation from the deep racial injustices left over from the apartheid era, making reconciliation the theme of his time in office.
The hallmark of Mandela’s mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which probed apartheid crimes on both sides of the struggle and tried to heal the country’s wounds.
In 1999, Mandela retired and was succeeded by Cde Thabo Mbeki. In retirement, he shifted his energies to battling South Africa’s Aids crisis and the struggle became personal when he lost his only surviving son to the disease in 2005.
Mandela’s last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he attended the championship match of the soccer World Cup, where he received a thunderous ovation from the 90 000 at the stadium in Soweto, the neighbourhood in which he cut his teeth as a resistance leader.
Charged with capital offences in the infamous 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” he said. – Wires