Former South African President Nelson Mandela lying in state with his widow Graca Machel viewing. He laid in state for three days at the Union Buildings in Pretoria., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Mandela burial ‘strictly family affair’
December 14, 2013 International
South Africans will not be able to see Nelson Mandela’s remains being laid to rest, with his actual burial a strictly private, family affair, a government spokeswoman said yesterday. At least 5 000 people, including foreign dignitaries and senior political figures, are expected to attend Sunday’s funeral ceremony in Mandela’s boyhood home Qunu.
Once the initial public service has been completed, however, the moment of interment will, at the family’s request, be a purely private affair, spokeswoman Phumla Williams said.
“The family has indicated they want to make the burial a family matter,” Williams said.
“They don’t want it to be televised. They dont want people to see when the body is taken down.”
After three days of lying in state in the capital Pretoria, Mandela’s casket will be flown to Qunu early today.
A special stage and marquee have been erected for the two-hour public funeral service which begins at 8:00 am (tomorrow.
As of Thursday evening, 3 000 members of the media had already descended on the remote site in the Eastern Cape.
Meanwhile, the South African government formally apologised yesterday for any offence caused by the sign language interpreter it hired for Nelson Mandela’s memorial, later exposed as a fake.
“We sincerely apologise to th—e deaf community and to all South Africans for any offence that may have been suffered,” Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said in a statement.
The country’s junior minister for disabilities, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, admitted on Thursday the government had made a “mistake”, but defended the interpreter.
Enraged sign language experts said that Thamsanqa Jantjie’s signing in front of US President Barack Obama and other world leaders gathered at Soweto’s Soccer City stadium had amounted to little more than “flapping his arms around”.
Jantjie later blamed his behaviour on a schizophrenic attack.
Contacted by AFP by telephone yesterday, he refused to discuss the incident, saying he was too busy drafting an explanation to the government.
“Yesterday I explained to all the media . . . (and) today I am busy with the government that want my side of the story,” he said.
Minister Mashatile said parliament would pass a new law early next year to regulate the profession “so that this kind of incident doesn’t happen ever again.”
— AFP.
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