Former South African president Nelson Mandela was laid to rest yesterday after a state funeral filled with tearful eulogies and strident vows to pursue his ideals of equality and justice.
Mandela’s casket was buried at his family plot in his rural boyhood home of Qunu, watched by his widow, Graca Machel, ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, other family members and about 450 guests.
The interment followed a ceremonial state funeral that ran well over its allotted two hours, as speaker after speaker paid emotional tribute to the man who led South Africa out of the apartheid era.
Photo: AFP
“The person who lies here is South Africa’s greatest son,” African National Congress Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said in an opening address.
A 21-gun salute and full military honor guard had escorted Mandela’s coffin to the marquee, where 4,500 mourners said their final goodbyes.
His flag-draped casket was placed on cow skins, surrounded by 95 candles — each signifying a year of his extraordinary life.
The frail and aging leaders of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle also attended: George Bizos, former Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu and Ahmed Kathrada, whose voice broke with as he delivered a eulogy for his old friend.
“I first met him 67 years ago,” said Kathrada, who along with Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1963.
He recalled his fellow inmate as a powerful amateur boxer who could cope far better than others with the physical challenge of hard labor.
“What I saw in hospital was a man helpless and reduced to a shadow of himself,” he said, struggling not to break down. “We can salute you as a fighter for freedom. Farewell my dear brother, my mentor, my leader. Now I’ve lost a brother, my life is in a void and I don’t know who turn to.”
His words left many in tears among the invited guests, whose ranks included foreign dignitaries and celebrities ranging from Britain’s Prince Charles to US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
While Mandela had been critically ill for months, the announcement of his death on Dec. 5 still sent a spasm through a country struggling to carry forward his vision of a harmonious multi-racial democracy of shared prosperity.
During the funeral, South African President Jacob Zuma told the country to carry on his legacy.
“One thing we can assure you of today Tata [father], as you take your final steps, is that South Africa will continue to rise. South Africa will continue to rise because we dare not fail you,” Zuma said.
After the ceremony, Mandela’s coffin was transported to a graveyard sitting on the sprawling family estate Mandela built in Qunu after his release from prison in 1990.
“It was in that village that I spent some of the happiest years of my boyhood and whence I trace my earliest memories,” he wrote in his autobiography.
As the coffin was lowered into the ground, a formation of military aircraft — six jets with one spot left vacant in a symbol of a missing man — flew overhead. After a life spent in the public spotlight, Mandela’s final rites were a private affair.
A family deprived of their husband and father during his 27 years in apartheid prisons and many more years in public service seized it as an intimate last goodbye to a man who meant much to millions.
A live television broadcast followed the coffin to the graveside, but was cut after several minutes in line with the family’s wishes.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS