THOUSANDS of mourners are expected to flood into the country for the state funeral of former president Nelson Mandela, and the crowds are likely to rival those of Pope Benedict’s coronation in 2005.
With hundreds of heads of state and other high-ranking officials expected to attend Mandela’s funeral, the Department of International Affairs and Co-operation has put into play a long-standing plan to accommodate the many dignitaries.
The department, which has been fine-tuning its plan for several years, has been in discussions with the various embassies to ensure that both protocol and needs of the heads of state are met during their stay.
In depth: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 1918- 2013
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tributes and photographsIt has long-standing agreements with several hotels to take over their premises for the event. One of these is the Pretoria Sheraton. Being the only five-star property in the Pretoria city centre and a stone’s throw from the Union Buildings, the hotel is ideally placed and a popular choice with presidents and other heads of state.
"The agreement is that the hotel management will have to find alternative accommodation for all those staying in the hotel to make way for the officials attend," a hotel industry insider said.
However, the hotel has only 175 rooms and not all dignitaries will be able to be accommodated in the Pretoria hotel. The US secretary of state, for example, typically requires more than 100 rooms for the official entourage alone.
"The most heads of state the Sheraton has accommodated at one time is 16 but they are able to convert some more rooms to presidential standard," said the insider.
However, some officials are likely to opt to stay in one of Johannesburg’s top hotels, including Sandton’s Michelangelo Hotel.
The Sandton hotel has 22 suites and accommodated up to 14 heads of state during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Another industry insider said while many media houses and news networks such as BBC and CNN have tried to secure accommodation with many of these top hotels, they have been turned away.
"It is a security nightmare having the media and heads of state in one hotel, and many of these hotels are selected because of their professional approach to such matters," said the insider.
As the funeral is expected to be in Mandela’s home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, preparations for the arrival of top officials have been difficult for embassies trying to decide on accommodation in either Port Elizabeth or East London — a considerable distance from Qunu.
Local aviation companies with helicopters have been approached by some embassies to have them on standby to ferry top officials, including presidents. However, for security reasons the details have not been released.
