Former South African president Nelson Mandela’s close family members gathered to hear a somber prayer wishing the anti-apartheid icon a “peaceful, perfect end” as he lay in hospital in critical condition with his life seemingly slipping away.
Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba visited Pretoria’s Mediclinic Heart Hospital late on Tuesday to pray with Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, “at this hard time of watching and waiting.”
Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent 27 years behind bars for his struggle under white minority rule and went on to become South Africa’s first black president, was admitted on June 8 with a recurrent lung infection.
Photo: AFP
During a 19-day vigil, his family, and the world, have watched as the 94-year-old slipped from a stable to a critical condition.
Many now fear for the man, who, in defeating apartheid, changed the course of history and inspired millions across the world.
The archbishop’s prayer seemed to echo a growing feeling of inevitability about Mandela’s condition that is increasingly voiced by South Africans, to whom he remains a moral giant, even though he stepped back from public life a decade ago.
“May [we] be filled with gratitude for all the good that he has done for us and for our nation, and may [we] honor his legacy through our lives,” the prayer read.
“Grant Madiba eternal healing, and relief from pain and suffering,” it said, referring to Mandela by his clan name. “Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect end.”
According to local media, elders from Mandela’s Thembu clan were due to visit him in hospital yesterday to decide what to do.
“They want to visit Tata [father] himself and discuss what should be done,” an unnamed local chief told the Times newspaper.
It follows reports that a row broke out at a family gathering on Tuesday over whether to move the graves of Mandela’s three children to Qunu, where Mandela is expected to be buried, the village where the charismatic former leader spent his childhood tending cattle and living in mud-walled huts.
The police presence in the neighborhood of Mandela’s home was bigger early yesterday, compared with previous nights. Outside the hospital in Pretoria, flowers and messages of support piled up as a growing crowd sang hymns.
“I’m here because of Tata Mandela,” said 38-year-old Tolly Mogane, one of the generation Mandela led from the darkness of racist rule to democracy. “Today I’m free, nobody is going to tell me to go home.”
As South Africans have become resigned to Mandela’s mortality, his role in shaping their nation has come into sharper focus.
“Mr Mandela set the example,” said Rosemarie van Staden, who was handing out muffins to well-wishers. “He wanted us to be a rainbow nation and we really must carry on.”
South African President Jacob Zuma called on South Africans to respect the Mandela family’s “dignity and privacy.”
Meanwhile, messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai described the iconic figure as “an inspiration.”
The White House said it was monitoring Mandela’s condition, but could not yet say whether his ill health would affect a planned visit by US President Barack Obama to South Africa from tomorrow as part of a tour of Africa.
In any case, Obama is unlikely to see Mandela as he is “indisposed,” South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said.
Mandela — who is due to celebrate his 95th birthday on July 18 — has been hospitalized four times since December last year.
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