Mandela’s memorial to have more than 70 world leaders
10 Dec 2013 11:45 PM GMT
More than 70 leaders from across the world, some of them locked in enmity, are flying to South Africa for memorials to Nelson Mandela that will hail one of humanity’s great peacemakers, officials said on Monday. US President Barack Obama and Raul Castro from Cuba, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Britain’s David Cameron will be among those attending Tuesday’s main send-off in Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium, reflecting the global appeal of South Africa’s first black leader, who died on Thursday aged 95.
‘The whole world is coming to South Africa,’ foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said, playing down concerns about the logistics and security of such a large event organised at only five days notice. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would also be there, Monyela said, raising the prospect of a first face-to-face meeting with Obama. However, Rouhani’s name was not on an initial official list of attendees.
Much of the logistical plan is based on South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 soccer World Cup. And though Pretoria refused to talk about Mandela’s funeral arrangements before his death, it has been laying the preparations for years. ‘We’re obviously not starting from scratch in terms of organisation,’ Monyela said. ‘We’ve got a system that kicks into play whenever you’ve got events of this magnitude.’
Besides security, the memorial at the 95,000-seat stadium near Soweto presents officials with a diplomatic minefield - trying to avoid a chance standoff in the rest rooms, say, between Mugabe and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister whom he has denounced as a ‘little boy’ and a ‘liar’.
Those close to Madiba, the clan name by which Mandela was known, say he would have wanted handshakes, not head-butts.
‘Tomorrow, people should all be honouring their relationship with Madiba. If it means shaking hands with the enemy, yes, I would like to see that,’ Zelda la Grange, his former personal assistant for more than a decade, said.
‘That is what Nelson Mandela was and actually is - bringing people together despite their differences.’
‘AMANDLA!’
On the day, diplomacy is unlikely to detract from the outpouring of emotion expected at the 7-hour ceremony at Soccer City, a gigantic bowl, steeped in Mandela symbolism.
It was there that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate made his last public appearance three years ago, waving to fans from the back of a golf cart at the World Cup final.
It was also there, 20 years earlier, that he addressed tens of thousands of supporters two days after his release from prison, eliciting a deafening roar from the crowd with a clenched fist raised to the sky and a single word: ‘Amandla’, the Zulu and Xhosa word for ‘power’.
Since his death, South Africa has been gripped by mass emotions unrivalled since the day Mandela was freed after 27 years in apartheid jails, and his victory in the first all-race elections four years later, in 1994.
Millions take to social media to honour anti-Apartheid icon
Houston: Millions took to social media to honour the legacy of anti-apartheid legend Nelson Mandela, who died at the age of 95, with Twitter generating 7.2 million tweets. That total surpasses some busy Twitter moments from this year, but doesn’t set any Twitter record, said a spokesperson of the microbogging site. Users generated 7.2 million tweets about his death, including a peak of 95,000 tweets per minute, said the spokesperson.For comparison, the Super Bowl in February between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens generated over 24 million tweets, including more than 231,000 per minute during the game’s power outage. On Facebook, the traffic was even higher. A total of 39 million people generated more than 80 million interactions related to Mandela’s death. As to be expected, South Africa was the second most active country in terms of posts about its former president, following the US. Mandela, South Africa’s first black president who steered his nation out of apartheid and into multi-race democracy, died late on Thursday after protracted illness.
‘Won’t lower US flag for Mandela’
Washington: A sheriff in the US has refused to lower the national flag in tribute to Nelson Mandela, contending that the honour should be reserved only for Americans. US President Obama ordered flags lowered to half-staff for the international icon until sunset on Monday. But, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark has refused flying the American flag at half-staff in his department.
‘The whole world is coming to South Africa,’ foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said, playing down concerns about the logistics and security of such a large event organised at only five days notice. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would also be there, Monyela said, raising the prospect of a first face-to-face meeting with Obama. However, Rouhani’s name was not on an initial official list of attendees.
Much of the logistical plan is based on South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 soccer World Cup. And though Pretoria refused to talk about Mandela’s funeral arrangements before his death, it has been laying the preparations for years. ‘We’re obviously not starting from scratch in terms of organisation,’ Monyela said. ‘We’ve got a system that kicks into play whenever you’ve got events of this magnitude.’
Besides security, the memorial at the 95,000-seat stadium near Soweto presents officials with a diplomatic minefield - trying to avoid a chance standoff in the rest rooms, say, between Mugabe and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister whom he has denounced as a ‘little boy’ and a ‘liar’.
Those close to Madiba, the clan name by which Mandela was known, say he would have wanted handshakes, not head-butts.
‘Tomorrow, people should all be honouring their relationship with Madiba. If it means shaking hands with the enemy, yes, I would like to see that,’ Zelda la Grange, his former personal assistant for more than a decade, said.
‘That is what Nelson Mandela was and actually is - bringing people together despite their differences.’
‘AMANDLA!’
On the day, diplomacy is unlikely to detract from the outpouring of emotion expected at the 7-hour ceremony at Soccer City, a gigantic bowl, steeped in Mandela symbolism.
It was there that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate made his last public appearance three years ago, waving to fans from the back of a golf cart at the World Cup final.
It was also there, 20 years earlier, that he addressed tens of thousands of supporters two days after his release from prison, eliciting a deafening roar from the crowd with a clenched fist raised to the sky and a single word: ‘Amandla’, the Zulu and Xhosa word for ‘power’.
Since his death, South Africa has been gripped by mass emotions unrivalled since the day Mandela was freed after 27 years in apartheid jails, and his victory in the first all-race elections four years later, in 1994.
Millions take to social media to honour anti-Apartheid icon
Houston: Millions took to social media to honour the legacy of anti-apartheid legend Nelson Mandela, who died at the age of 95, with Twitter generating 7.2 million tweets. That total surpasses some busy Twitter moments from this year, but doesn’t set any Twitter record, said a spokesperson of the microbogging site. Users generated 7.2 million tweets about his death, including a peak of 95,000 tweets per minute, said the spokesperson.For comparison, the Super Bowl in February between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens generated over 24 million tweets, including more than 231,000 per minute during the game’s power outage. On Facebook, the traffic was even higher. A total of 39 million people generated more than 80 million interactions related to Mandela’s death. As to be expected, South Africa was the second most active country in terms of posts about its former president, following the US. Mandela, South Africa’s first black president who steered his nation out of apartheid and into multi-race democracy, died late on Thursday after protracted illness.
‘Won’t lower US flag for Mandela’
Washington: A sheriff in the US has refused to lower the national flag in tribute to Nelson Mandela, contending that the honour should be reserved only for Americans. US President Obama ordered flags lowered to half-staff for the international icon until sunset on Monday. But, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark has refused flying the American flag at half-staff in his department.
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