WITH the health of their ailing dear Nelson Mandela remaining
critical, emotional crowds gathered outside his hospital yesterday, as
relatives and clan elders made preparations for the revered former South
African leader’s final journey.
But despite Madiba’s deteriorating health, supporters still sang hymns for the 94-year-old architect of South Africa’s remarkable transition from almost half a century of white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections, a report by Agence france Presse (AFP) indicated.
Moreso, a candlelight vigil was held late Tuesday and a prayer read out by a South African archbishop to wish the Nobel Peace laureate a “peaceful, perfect, end”.
“We have been so united — blacks and whites together. That’s the thought of Mandela in us,” said Lerato Boulares, 35.
With his life seemingly slipping away, messages of support for the anti-apartheid hero blanketed a wall outside the hospital, including a poster bearing one of his most memorable quotes: “It only seems impossible until it’s done”.
Meanwhile, messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas.
In only her fifth ever tweet, Hillary Clinton offered “love and prayers to our great friend, Madiba, his family and his nation during this difficult time.”
The White House has also sent its wishes but could not yet say whether his ill health would affect a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to South Africa from Friday as part of a tour of Africa.
The former political prisoner was hospitalised on June 8 with a stubborn lung problem dating from his 27 years locked up on the notorious Robben Island and in other apartheid prisons.
With his condition deteriorating, Mandela was breathing with the assistance of a life support ventilator, South African daily, The Citizen, reported, quoting unnamed family sources. It was not possible to verify the information.
Officially, there was no change in Mandela’s condition, with President Jacob Zuma reporting he was still “in a critical condition.”
According to local media, elders from Mandela’s Thembu clan were due to visit the Nobel laureate as his “Rainbow Nation” comes to terms with the increasing frailty of the man fondly known by his clan name Madiba.
The elders want to “discuss what should be done,” an unnamed local chief told local daily The Times, alluding to disagreement among family members over his burial site.
A row reportedly broke out between family members on Tuesday over whether to move the graves of Mandela’s three children to his childhood village where he is expected to be laid to rest, with grandson, Mandla Mandela, said to have stormed out of the meeting in anger.
Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba visited Pretoria’s Mediclinic Heart Hospital late Tuesday to pray with wife Graca Machel “at this hard time of watching and waiting”.
“Grant Madiba eternal healing and relief from pain and suffering,” the prayer said. “Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end.”
A makeshift campsite has sprung up in front of the hospital as international television crews descend on South Africa awaiting word on Mandela’s health, competing with his supporters for space on the pavement.
“I pray for him, every day, every morning so he must not die now,” said Folashade Olaitan.
School children brought a poster they had drawn with the words “We love u Tata (father)”.
Zuma said that Mandela had spent his life “in dedication to humanity”.
Zuma led delegates at a union conference in a rousing song that evokes Mandela’s role as a moral compass and leader of the struggle for freedom: “As Mandela said to his followers, ‘This road we’ve embarked on is long; we’ll meet on Freedom Day’”.
Mandela’s fragile state of health has sparked speculation that the tour could be halted, or radically changed, if the anti-apartheid icon passes away in the hours before Obama leaves, or while he is on the continent.
South Africa’s foreign minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane said that while Obama would have loved to see Mandela, a meeting with the former South African leader would be impossible.
Mandela – whose 95th birthday is on July 18 – has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for a recurring lung infection dating back to his time in jail for sabotage against the apartheid government.
The world watched as the man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain raised his fist as he walked free from prison near Cape Town in 1990.
Mandela went on to negotiate an end to white minority rule and won South Africa’s first fully democratic elections in 1994.
He forged a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner.
He stepped back from public life in 2004 and has not been seen in public since the football World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.
With his health now fading, Mandela’s supporters are becoming resigned to his mortality — while preparing to celebrate his legacy.
“He’s now (nearly) 95 years old so we don’t have to worry about him,’ 40-year-old Jauffre Basube said. “I think he’s done what he’s supposed to do.”
But despite Madiba’s deteriorating health, supporters still sang hymns for the 94-year-old architect of South Africa’s remarkable transition from almost half a century of white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections, a report by Agence france Presse (AFP) indicated.
Moreso, a candlelight vigil was held late Tuesday and a prayer read out by a South African archbishop to wish the Nobel Peace laureate a “peaceful, perfect, end”.
“We have been so united — blacks and whites together. That’s the thought of Mandela in us,” said Lerato Boulares, 35.
With his life seemingly slipping away, messages of support for the anti-apartheid hero blanketed a wall outside the hospital, including a poster bearing one of his most memorable quotes: “It only seems impossible until it’s done”.
Meanwhile, messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas.
In only her fifth ever tweet, Hillary Clinton offered “love and prayers to our great friend, Madiba, his family and his nation during this difficult time.”
The White House has also sent its wishes but could not yet say whether his ill health would affect a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to South Africa from Friday as part of a tour of Africa.
The former political prisoner was hospitalised on June 8 with a stubborn lung problem dating from his 27 years locked up on the notorious Robben Island and in other apartheid prisons.
With his condition deteriorating, Mandela was breathing with the assistance of a life support ventilator, South African daily, The Citizen, reported, quoting unnamed family sources. It was not possible to verify the information.
Officially, there was no change in Mandela’s condition, with President Jacob Zuma reporting he was still “in a critical condition.”
According to local media, elders from Mandela’s Thembu clan were due to visit the Nobel laureate as his “Rainbow Nation” comes to terms with the increasing frailty of the man fondly known by his clan name Madiba.
The elders want to “discuss what should be done,” an unnamed local chief told local daily The Times, alluding to disagreement among family members over his burial site.
A row reportedly broke out between family members on Tuesday over whether to move the graves of Mandela’s three children to his childhood village where he is expected to be laid to rest, with grandson, Mandla Mandela, said to have stormed out of the meeting in anger.
Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba visited Pretoria’s Mediclinic Heart Hospital late Tuesday to pray with wife Graca Machel “at this hard time of watching and waiting”.
“Grant Madiba eternal healing and relief from pain and suffering,” the prayer said. “Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end.”
A makeshift campsite has sprung up in front of the hospital as international television crews descend on South Africa awaiting word on Mandela’s health, competing with his supporters for space on the pavement.
“I pray for him, every day, every morning so he must not die now,” said Folashade Olaitan.
School children brought a poster they had drawn with the words “We love u Tata (father)”.
Zuma said that Mandela had spent his life “in dedication to humanity”.
Zuma led delegates at a union conference in a rousing song that evokes Mandela’s role as a moral compass and leader of the struggle for freedom: “As Mandela said to his followers, ‘This road we’ve embarked on is long; we’ll meet on Freedom Day’”.
Mandela’s fragile state of health has sparked speculation that the tour could be halted, or radically changed, if the anti-apartheid icon passes away in the hours before Obama leaves, or while he is on the continent.
South Africa’s foreign minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane said that while Obama would have loved to see Mandela, a meeting with the former South African leader would be impossible.
Mandela – whose 95th birthday is on July 18 – has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for a recurring lung infection dating back to his time in jail for sabotage against the apartheid government.
The world watched as the man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain raised his fist as he walked free from prison near Cape Town in 1990.
Mandela went on to negotiate an end to white minority rule and won South Africa’s first fully democratic elections in 1994.
He forged a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner.
He stepped back from public life in 2004 and has not been seen in public since the football World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.
With his health now fading, Mandela’s supporters are becoming resigned to his mortality — while preparing to celebrate his legacy.
“He’s now (nearly) 95 years old so we don’t have to worry about him,’ 40-year-old Jauffre Basube said. “I think he’s done what he’s supposed to do.”
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