FORMER president Nelson Mandela’s remains arrived in his native Eastern Cape on Saturday afternoon on a ceremony-laden journey to his final resting place in Qunu. Family elders waited to receive Mandela in the village where he grew up and will be buried in a state funeral early on Sunday.
Escorted by fighter jets, a C-130 military aircraft carrying his coffin touched down in Mthatha, 45km away, under heavy rain clouds and almost two hours late, after leaving Waterkloof Air Force Base where the African National Congress (ANC) paid farewell to the man that led it to power.
President Jacob Zuma, who has endured unflattering comparisons to Mandela in the wake of his death, stressed Mandela’s commitment to racial unity in a long speech that turned political.
"We need more Madibas so that our country can prosper ... Yes, we are free, but the challenge of inequality remains," he told an audience packed with liberation-struggle leaders, including former president Thabo Mbeki.
"The question is, can we produce as the ANC other Madibas?" he asked.
Mr Mbeki, who was ousted by Mr Zuma in a political coup five years ago, made headlines this week when he suggested the country needed better leadership.
On Saturday, Mr Zuma pointedly said Mandela’s death was not the moment to settle political scores. "We should not think that Madiba’s passing is a time for settling scores ... it means you do not understand Madiba and you will never understand him, because he was a man of honesty."
In depth: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 1918- 2013
News and views on the death, and life, of former president Nelson Mandela, with tributes and photographsThe president handed an ANC flag to Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, who wept openly at the close of the ceremony.
One of Mandela’s grandchildren, Mandla, thanked those who had come to pay their respects to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He had spent the past three days near Mandela’s casket in Pretoria as he lay in state.
"I have witnessed his army, I have witnessed his people, I have witnessed ordinary South Africans who walked this long walk to freedom with him," he said, "and I can assure the African National Congress today that the future of this country looks bright."
Ms Machel and Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were flown to Mthatha and were among dozens of family members and ANC leaders who waited on the runway as Mandela’s coffin emerged from the plane, draped in a national flag this time, while a military band played.
The two women shared a car in the funeral cortege that set off slowly from Mthatha to Qunu. Crowds of mourners, some holding flags and flowers, lined the streets of the former homeland capital to catch a glimpse of it, echoing a scene that played itself out in Pretoria this week as Mandela’s cortege made its way to the Union Buildings where he lay in state.
Tutu invitation controversy
Meanwhile, a controversy erupted over the funeral after Mandela’s close friend Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said he would not attend the ceremony because he had not been invited.
Archbishop Tutu contradicted presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, who assured the media that the outspoken cleric, often described as the nation’s moral guardian, was on the guest list.
"Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral," he said in a statement.
It was not clear who would officiate at the funeral early on Sunday, but the event will incorporate traditional Xhosa burial rites.
The funeral, planned as more intimate than the mass memorial held on Tuesday, will bring together members of Mandela’s family and Xhosa AbaThembu clan and a smaller group of dignitaries. These include African and Caribbean leaders, Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Shariatmadari, Lesotho’s King Letsie III and former French prime ministers Lionel Jospin and Alain Juppe.
The event will mark the end of 10 days of mourning for Mandela that has brought about 100 international leaders to South Africa to pay their respects, with US President Barack Obama eulogising him as a "giant of history" at the main memorial in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Over the following three days, roughly 100,000 mourners made their way to Mandela’s open casket in Pretoria to say an often emotional farewell.
Sapa and Reuters
