JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South Africa
struggled Monday to meet the unprecedented
logistical challenge of hosting close to 100
world leaders flying in from every corner of
the globe for the state funeral of freedom
icon Nelson Mandela.
“The world literally is coming to South
Africa,” said the government’s head of public
diplomacy, Clayson Monyela.
“I don’t think it has ever happened before,”
Monyela said of the wave of 91 leaders,
including US President Barack Obama, bearing
down on the country.
Nelson Mandela
Many will join the 80,000 people expected to
cram Tuesday into the FNB stadium in Soweto
to take part in a grand memorial service for
their inspirational first black president.
Reflecting the depth and breadth of Mandela’s
popularity, the event will see political foes
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro share
the same stage in paying tribute to one of the
towering political figures of the 20th century.
South African President Jacob Zuma will make
the keynote address, and other speakers will
include UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon and
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Four of Mandela’s adored grandchildren will
speak for his family, while neither his widow,
Graca Machel, nor his ex-wife Winne
Madikizela-Mandela are listed on the
programme.
The memorial service, in the venue where
Mandela made his last major public appearance
for the 2010 World Cup final, is seen as a final
chance for grieving South Africans to unite in
a mass celebration of his life ahead of the
more formal state funeral.
Some 120,000 people will be able to watch the
event on giant screens set up in three overflow
stadiums in Johannesburg.
‘You are never prepared enough’
Although Mandela had been critically ill for
months, the announcement of his death on
Thursday night still rocked a country that had
looked to his unassailable moral authority as a
comforting constant in a time of uncertain
social and economic change.
“I don’t think you are ever prepared enough,”
said Zelda la Grange, who was Mandela’s long-
time personal assistant both during and after
his presidency.
“We had prepared ourselves emotionally but
still we are overcome by this feeling of loss
and sadness,” La Grange said.
A single candle was lit in Mandela’s tiny prison
cell on Robben Island, where he spent the
harshest of his 27 years in apartheid jails,
before emerging to lead his country out of the
shadow of apartheid into a multi-racial
democracy.
The week-long observances will culminate
Sunday in Mandela’s burial at a family plot in
his boyhood home of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
The government has sought to dissuade A-list
dignitaries from attending, citing Qunu’s rural
location, the lack of amenities and limited
space.
Ahead of the burial, Mandela’s body will lie in
state for three days from Wednesday in the
amphitheatre of the Union Buildings in
Pretoria where he was sworn in as president in
1994.
Each morning, his coffin will be borne through
the streets of the capital in a funeral cortege,
to give as many people as possible the chance
to pay their final respects.
11,000 troops mobilised
Around 11,000 troops have been mobilised to
ensure security and help with crowd control.
Despite the sudden influx of international
dignitaries and the compressed preparation
time, National Police spokesman Solomon
Makgale insisted that the security apparatus
could cope.
“Having so many heads of state is not a
security headache for us. We’ve learned over
the years,” Makgale said, adding that they
would be “working closely” with the foreign
leaders’ own security details.
As well as Obama and three previous
occupants of the White House, British Prime
Minister David Cameron, French President
Francois Hollande and Afghan President
Hamid Karzai were all on the guest list.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was
among the first to arrive, visited the Nelson
Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg where he
paid handsome tribute to a “giant for justice”
whose “mighty life” touched millions.
Parliament met in special session Monday, with
MPs carrying single red roses as they entered
the assembly building that was flanked by
giant portraits of Mandela in tribal dress and
as an elder statesman.
Opposition leader Helen Zille said every
politician had a duty to carry forward
Mandela’s ideals of justice and equality for all.
“He has handed the baton to us and we dare
not drop it,” Zille said.
Africa will be represented at the funeral by
Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan and more than a
dozen other heads of state and government.
Notable absentees include Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who cited high
travel and security costs, and Mandela’s
fellow Nobel peace laureate, the Dalai Lama,
who since 2009 has twice been denied a visa
for South Africa.
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and singer-
activist Bono, as well as British billionaire
Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel
were expected to be among the celebrity
mourners.