Mandela supporters gather as anti-apartheid icon fights for life
Source: AFP |
June 27, 2013, Thursday
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EMOTIONAL crowds gathered outside the hospital where Nelson Mandela lay in critical condition yesterday, as relatives and clan elders made preparations for the revered former South African leader's final journey.
Singing supporters amassed outside the Pretoria hospital where the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero was fighting for his life.
A candlelight vigil was held late on Tuesday and a prayer read out by a South African archbishop to wish the anti-apartheid icon a "peaceful, perfect, end."
"We have been so united - blacks and whites together. That's the thought of Mandela in us," said Lerato Boulares, 35, who was singing hymns at the entrance of the Mediclinic Heart Hospital.
The former political prisoner is hailed as the architect of South Africa's incredible journey from white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections in 1994.
He was hospitalized on June 8 with a stubborn lung infection dating from his 27 years locked up on Robben Island and in other apartheid prisons.
According to local media, elders from Mandela's Thembu clan were due to visit the Nobel Peace laureate late yesterday as his "Rainbow Nation" comes to terms with the increasing frailty of the man fondly known by his clan name Madiba.
The elders want to visit Mandela to "discuss what should be done," an unnamed local chief told The Times newspaper, alluding to disagreement among family members over his burial site.
A row reportedly broke out between family members on Tuesday over whether to move the graves of Mandela's three children to his childhood village where he is expected to be laid to rest, with grandson Mandla Mandela said to have stormed out of the meeting in anger.
Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba visited Pretoria's Mediclinic Heart Hospital late on Tuesday to pray with wife Graca Machel "at this hard time of watching and waiting."
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 beacon of moral authority, even though he stepped back from public life a decade ago.
"Grant Madiba eternal healing and relief from pain and suffering," the prayer said.
"Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end."
A makeshift campsite has sprung up in front of the hospital as international television crews descend on South Africa awaiting word on Mandela's health, competing with his supporters for space on the pavement.
"I pray for him, every day, every morning so he must not die now," said Folashade Olaitan.
School children brought a poster they had drawn with the words "We love u Tata (father)."
Meanwhile messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas.
In only her fifth ever tweet, Hillary Clinton offered "love and prayers to our great friend, Madiba, his family and his nation during this difficult time."
Singing supporters amassed outside the Pretoria hospital where the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero was fighting for his life.
A candlelight vigil was held late on Tuesday and a prayer read out by a South African archbishop to wish the anti-apartheid icon a "peaceful, perfect, end."
"We have been so united - blacks and whites together. That's the thought of Mandela in us," said Lerato Boulares, 35, who was singing hymns at the entrance of the Mediclinic Heart Hospital.
The former political prisoner is hailed as the architect of South Africa's incredible journey from white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections in 1994.
He was hospitalized on June 8 with a stubborn lung infection dating from his 27 years locked up on Robben Island and in other apartheid prisons.
According to local media, elders from Mandela's Thembu clan were due to visit the Nobel Peace laureate late yesterday as his "Rainbow Nation" comes to terms with the increasing frailty of the man fondly known by his clan name Madiba.
The elders want to visit Mandela to "discuss what should be done," an unnamed local chief told The Times newspaper, alluding to disagreement among family members over his burial site.
A row reportedly broke out between family members on Tuesday over whether to move the graves of Mandela's three children to his childhood village where he is expected to be laid to rest, with grandson Mandla Mandela said to have stormed out of the meeting in anger.
Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba visited Pretoria's Mediclinic Heart Hospital late on Tuesday to pray with wife Graca Machel "at this hard time of watching and waiting."
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 beacon of moral authority, even though he stepped back from public life a decade ago.
"Grant Madiba eternal healing and relief from pain and suffering," the prayer said.
"Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end."
A makeshift campsite has sprung up in front of the hospital as international television crews descend on South Africa awaiting word on Mandela's health, competing with his supporters for space on the pavement.
"I pray for him, every day, every morning so he must not die now," said Folashade Olaitan.
School children brought a poster they had drawn with the words "We love u Tata (father)."
Meanwhile messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas.
In only her fifth ever tweet, Hillary Clinton offered "love and prayers to our great friend, Madiba, his family and his nation during this difficult time."
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