|
| Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel pays her respects to former South African President Nelson Mandela during the lying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. |
PRETORIA, South
Africa (AP) -- Black and white, old and young, South Africans by the
thousands paid final tribute Wednesday to their beloved Nelson Mandela.
In silence or murmuring, they filed past the coffin. Some glanced back,
as if clinging to the sight, a moment in history.
One
man raised his fist, the potent gesture of the struggle against white
rule that Mandela led from prison. A woman fainted on the steps, and was
helped into a wheelchair.
They had only a few
seconds to look at the man many called "tata" - father in his native
Xhosa - his face and upper body visible through a clear bubble atop the
casket, dressed in a black-and-yellow shirt of the kind he favored as a
statesman.
"I wish I can say to him, `Wake up
and don't leave us,'" said Mary Kgobe, a 52-year-old teacher, after
viewing the casket at the century-old Union Buildings, a sandstone
government complex overlooking the capital, Pretoria, that was once the
seat of white power.
Wearing the black, green
and gold of the African National Congress, the ruling party Mandela once
led, she was among the multitude who endured hours in the sun to say
goodbye to the man they call their father, liberator and peacemaker.
Kgobe said losing Mandela, who died Dec. 5 at 95, was like losing a part of herself.
"This
moment is really electrifying, knowing well what he did for us. I wish
we could follow in his steps and be humble like he was," said Kgobe,
whose grandfather, an ANC activist, was arrested several times.
Long
lines of mourners snaked through the capital for a glimpse of Mandela's
body as it lay in state for three days - an image reminiscent of the
miles-long queues of voters who waited patiently to cast their ballots
during South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994 that saw Mandela
become the country's first black president.
At
a parking lot where buses ferried people to the viewing, the mood was
cheerful. When a bus carrying supporters of the ANC made a wrong turn
and drove away from the Union Buildings, one man joked: "Do they think
we will steal the body?"
There was order and
respect once they disembarked at the foot of steps leading to a marquee
that sheltered Mandela's casket. Signs on the wall said no firearms were
allowed. Some people shielded themselves from the sun with squares of
cardboard plastered with large images of Mandela.
"Today
was the first day and the last day I saw him. ... I had to see him for
myself even if I couldn't speak with him," said Amos Mafolo, who works
in logistics for the South African police.
When his four children are older, Mafolo said, he will sit them down and tell them where he was on this day.
Silver
Mogotlane opened his heart, saying he knew Mandela as a symbol and a
historical figure, but still wondered in awe: "Who is this man?"
"I'm lost. My mind is lost," he said after passing the casket.
Police officers stood nearby, one holding a box of tissues.
Mandela
was lying in state in the same hilltop building where he made a
stirring inaugural address that marked the birth of South Africa's
democracy - an irony that was not lost on the throngs.
"It's
amazing to think that 19 years ago he was inaugurated there, and now
he's lying there," said another viewer, Paul Letageng. "If he was not
here, we would not have had peace in South Africa."
The
mourners were joined by world leaders and Mandela family members, who
walked silently past the casket at a special morning viewing, Mandela's
widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
among them.
By the afternoon, long lines had
formed, but the government said the cutoff point had been reached,
urging people to arrive early on the following two days to get their
chance.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe,
South African President Jacob Zuma and other leaders passed by the
casket in two lines as four junior naval officers in white uniforms
stood guard.
U2 frontman Bono also paid his
respects, as did F.W. de Klerk, the last president of white rule who
shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela for ending apartheid.
"I hope that his focus on lasting reconciliation will live and bloom in South Africa," de Klerk said.
South
Sudan's president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, stood transfixed before
removing his trademark black cowboy hat and crossing himself.
The
orderly proceedings were in contrast to a large-scale celebration
Tuesday that went somewhat awry because of poor transport planning,
faulty sound equipment and even an alleged impostor who, acting as an
interpreter for the deaf, spouted nonsense rather than translating
speeches by President Barack Obama and other statesmen.
The
half-empty stands at that event led some to think the public had become
apathetic, but the overwhelming response Wednesday showed South
Africans' thirst for a simple way to say goodbye.
On
Wednesday morning, police on motorcycles escorted a hearse bearing
Mandela's flag-draped coffin from a military hospital outside Pretoria.
Hundreds lined the streets, singing songs from the struggle against the
apartheid regime and calling out farewells to Mandela.
Army
helicopters circled overhead, but a sudden quiet fell over the
amphitheater as the hearse arrived. Eight warrant officers representing
the services and divisions of the South African military carried the
casket, led by a military chaplain in a purple stole. The officers set
down the coffin and removed the flag.
Mandela's
body is to be flown Saturday to Qunu, his rural childhood village in
Eastern Cape Province, where he will be buried Sunday.
