South Africa bids farewell to Mandela for the last time

South Africa says goodbye to former president for the last time with tearful eulogies and strident vows to pursue his ideals of equality and justice.

South Africa President Jacob Zuma gives a speech during the funeral ceremony of South African former president Nelson Mandela in Qunu. Odd Andersen / AFP

QUNU, South Africa // Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, was laid to rest on Sunday after a state funeral filled with tearful eulogies and strident vows to pursue his ideals of equality and justice.

Mandela’s casket was buried at his family plot in his rural boyhood home of Qunu, watched by his widow Graca Machel, ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, other family members and around 450 selected guests.

The internment followed a ceremonial state funeral that ran well over its allotted two hours, as speaker after speaker paid emotional tribute to the man who led South Africa out of the apartheid era.

“The person who lies here is South Africa’s greatest son,” said Cyril Ramaphosa deputy president of Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC).

A 21-gun salute and full military honour guard had escorted Mandela’s coffin to the marquee where 4,500 mourners said their final goodbyes.

His flag-draped casket was placed on cow skins, surrounded by 95 candles — each signifying a year of his extraordinary life.

The frail and ageing leaders of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle also attended: George Bizos, Desmond Tutu and Ahmed Kathrada, whose voice broke with as he delivered a eulogy for his old friend.

“I first met him 67 years ago,” said Mr Kathrada, who along with Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1963.

He recalled his fellow inmate as a powerful amateur boxer who could cope far better than others with the physical challenge of hard labour.

“What I saw in hospital was a man helpless and reduced to a shadow of himself,” he said.

“We can salute you as a fighter for freedom. Farewell my dear brother, my mentor, my leader.

“Now I’ve lost a brother my life is in a void and I don’t know who turn to.”

His words left many in tears among the invited guests, whose ranks included foreign dignitaries and celebrities ranging from Britain’s Prince Charles to United States talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.

The funeral closed the final chapter on a towering public figure whose courage and moral fortitude turned him into a global symbol of freedom and hope.

During 10 days of mourning, hundreds of thousands of South Africans had turned out across the country to bid the founding father of their “Rainbow Nation” farewell.

They braved a rain-sodden memorial in Soweto and queued for three days to see his remains as they lay in state at Pretoria’s Union Buildings.

For 50 million compatriots, Mandela was not just a president, but a moral guide who led them away from internecine racial conflict.

“Ever since he passed away, I wanted to walk the journey with him,” said Pascal Moloi, 52, who made the trip from Johannesburg to Qunu.

For the rest of the world he was a charismatic leader of the anti-apartheid struggle.

While Mandela had been critically ill for months, the announcement of his death on December 5 still sent a spasm through a country struggling to carry forward his vision of a harmonious multiracial democracy of shared prosperity.

During the funeral, South African President Jacob Zuma told the country to carry on his legacy.

“One thing we can assure you of today Tata (father), as you take your final steps, is that South Africa will continue to rise.

“South Africa will continue to rise because we dare not fail you,” Mr Zuma said.

After the ceremony, Mandela’s coffin was transported to a graveyard sitting on the sprawling family estate Mandela built in Qunu after his release from prison in 1990.

“It was in that village that I spent some of the happiest years of my boyhood and whence I trace my earliest memories,” he wrote in his autobiography.

As the coffin was lowered into the ground, a formation of military aircraft — six jets with one spot left vacant in a symbol of a missing man — flew overhead.

After a life spent in the public spotlight, Mandela’s final rites were a private affair.

A family deprived of their husband and father during his 27 years in apartheid prisons and many more years in public service seized it as an intimate last goodbye to a man who meant much to millions.

A live television broadcast followed the coffin to the graveside but was cut after several minutes in line with the family’s wishes.

Overseen by male members of his clan in line with traditional Xhosa rites, the burial included the slaughter of an ox — a ritual marking of a life’s milestones.

Mandela was referred to throughout as Dalibhunga, the name given to him at the age of 16 after undergoing the initiation to adulthood.

*Agence France-Presse