ALL available hotel rooms in Gauteng have been reserved ahead of a memorial service for former president Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday at the age of 95.
Mandela will be buried at his ancestral home of Qunu in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, December 15, but in the 10 days of national mourning declared in the run-up to the state funeral, a memorial service will take place at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday, December 10.
From December 11 to 13, Mandela’s remains will lie in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where he was inaugurated as the first president of a democratic South Africa in 1994.
The government said that it was planning a public procession to transport Mandela’s body from Johannesburg to Pretoria after the official memorial in Soweto on Tuesday.
“Every morning, when the remains leave the mortuary to the lying in state, those routes will be made public,” GCIS chief director Neo Momodu told reporters in Johannesburg.
"Very little accommodation will be available in Johannesburg and Pretoria," said Eric Sakawsky, general manager at Corporate Traveller, a division of Flight Centre. "We’ve been notified that due to various government and consulate arrangements, all hotels in Gauteng will be on a block-out from December 6 to 25."
He said this should not affect prior bookings. Rental car companies nationally, and in particular in Gauteng, were affected too, he added.
After large crowds had gathered on Friday at Mandela’s Johannesburg homes, only a few people remained by Saturday morning.
At his house in Houghton, where he had been cared for up to his death, candles flickered among hundreds of flowers placed on the pavement.
Among the dignitaries expected to travel to South Africa this week from all over the world, US President Barack Obama and his two immediate predecessors, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, will all attend memorial events for Mandela.
In depth: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 1918- 2013
News and views on the death, and life, of former president Nelson Mandela, with
tributes and photographsMr Obama and his wife, Michelle, will be joined on Air Force One by Mr Bush and his wife, Laura, on the trip next week. Mr Clinton’s exact travel plans were still being worked out, a spokesman said.
News agency AFP reported that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff would also be among the guests.
The African National Congress dedicated its website to Mandela, allowing people worldwide to leave messages of support.
The website no longer displayed its signature yellow, green and black colours, and contained no information about the party itself. It was solely dedicated to Madiba, Mandela’s clan name, with a picture of him on its home page. There was also a gallery of photographs, speeches, statements and letters he had written and a biography.
Condolence books would be left at centres around Johannesburg for the public to write their messages. Scores of messages from around the world had already been left on the website by Saturday morning.
On Friday in Cape Town, thousands of people bearing flowers and flags packed a wind-swept Grand Parade for an interdenominational prayer service at the same place where, with the world watching and celebrating, Mandela made his first speech as a free man in 1990.
Late on Friday, hundreds more simply gathered at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg, near a giant statue of the former president.
Tributes
Meanwhile, tributes to Mandela kept pouring in from all over the globe as politicians, world organisations and others paid tribute to his life and achievements.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe sent his condolences through a letter to President Jacob Zuma, The Herald in Zimbabwe reported on Saturday.
""Not only was (Mandela) a great champion of the emancipation of the oppressed, but he also was a humble and compassionate leader who showed selfless dedication to the service of his people," Mr Mugabe wrote, adding: "We join the rest of the nation in mourning his departure. The late Nelson Mandela will forever remain in our minds as an unflinching fighter for justice."
North Korea also sent its condolences on Saturday. Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, sent a message of sympathy to Mr Zuma, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Mr Kim said "the feats performed by Nelson Mandela in the struggle against racism and for democracy in South Africa would always be remembered by the South African people and progressive mankind".
Countries paid tribute to Mandela by lighting up buildings in the colours of the South African flag. Pictures of the lit-up Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State Building in New York and the Omni Hotel in Dallas circulated on the internet.
In Washington DC, the South African embassy used light installations to cast a shadow of Mandela across its building.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Friday appealed for unity and said South Africa would manage without its best-loved citizen.
"The sun will rise tomorrow, and the next day and the next. It may not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on," he said.
He called on South Africans to reach out to one another to prove to the world that the country's greatness was not illusory. "Let us love one another as we loved him. Let us celebrate Madiba together, and not let him down," he said.
With Sapa and Reuters
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