Mandela Family Meeting in Qunu

Former Republic of South Africa President Nelson Mandela shown after receiving a R3-million donation to his foundation on June 18, 2008., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Mandela family meeting in Qunu

Tuesday, 25 June 2013 11:53

Close relatives of former president Nelson Mandela and chiefs of the Abathembu royal family gathered at his home in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, on Tuesday morning.

This followed an urgent call reportedly made by his children, a Sapa correspondent quoted by IOL reported.

Among those who arrived at the homestead were Mandla Mandela, Thanduxolo Mandela, Ndaba Mandela, and Ndileka Mandela.

Also there was chief Bhovulengwe, of the Abathembu royal council.

The meeting had yet to start by 10.30am. It was delayed because some family members were not aware of the meeting, and attempts were being made to contact them.

Napilisi Mandela, an elder in the Mandela family, confirmed that the meeting would go ahead as planned.

He said it was being called to discuss delicate matters pertaining to the anti-apartheid icon.

Napilisi Mandela usually presides over the family's meetings and rituals.

Another close relative, Silumko Mandela, said final arrangements for the meeting were still being made.

"Many of us in the village were not aware and we were only told this morning, so a number of Mandela elders still need to be transported to Qunu for the meeting," said Silumko Mandela.

- IOL.


Mandela’s family holds crucial indaba

Wednesday, 26 June 2013 00:00

QUNU. — Nelson Mandela’s close family gathered yesterday at his rural homestead to discuss the failing health of the South African anti-apartheid icon who was fighting for his life in hospital.

Messages of support poured in from around the world for the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who spent 27 years behind bars for his struggle under white minority rule and went on to become South Africa’s first black president.

Mandela remained unchanged in critical condition yesterday, the South African presidency said.

“We must keep him in our prayers and leave the rest to the Almighty to decide on,” Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said.

Family members, including one of Mandela’s daughters and at least two grandchildren, were seen gathering for a meeting in the village of Qunu, where the charismatic former leader spent his childhood tending cattle and living in mud-walled huts.

The meeting was called “to discuss delicate matters”, according to South Africa’s Sapa news agency, amid speculation that the location of his possible grave site was on the agenda.

The 94-year-old’s condition appeared to take a significant turn for the worse over the weekend with the presidency announcing on Sunday that he was “critical”.

Flowers and messages of support piled up outside the Pretoria hospital where Mandela was admitted on June 8 with a recurring lung problem dating back to his time at the windswept Robben Island prison camp near Cape Town.

“He is a man who changed the world,” said Vusi Mzimanda, who was among the well-wishers.

“He brings hope to everyone,” he said. “I just hope that he will get better and come to us. We don’t want to lose him even though we know it’s late.” Supporters also released 100 white doves into the air outside the hospital.

“It symbolises the fact that we need to have love as South Africans, we need to have peace in South Africa,” said dove breeder Thomas Toutts.

Relatives have been gathering at Mandela’s bedside each day as doctors battle to save the moral icon, who was once considered a terrorist by the United States and Britain for his support of violence against the apartheid regime.

Ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, herself a figurehead of the anti-apartheid struggle, visited the hospital on Monday along with daughters Zindzi Mandela-Motlhajwa and Zenani Mandela-Dlamini and scores of officials.

President Jacob Zuma called on South Africans to respect the Mandela family’s “dignity and privacy”.

“We must demonstrate our love and appreciation for his leadership during the struggle for liberation and in our first few years of freedom and democracy by living out his legacy and promoting unity, non-racialism, non-sexism and prosperity in our country,” Zuma said in a statement.

Messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas, including from the White House, which said its thoughts and prayers were with Mandela.

US President Barack Obama leaves today on a much-awaited tour of Africa that will take him to South Africa as well as Senegal and Tanzania.

The White House said it was monitoring Mandela’s condition and could not yet say whether his ill-health would affect the visit.
Other well-wishers included Swiss tennis great Roger Federer, who hailed the former South African president as “influential and amazing”.

Mandela, who is due to celebrate his 95th birthday on July 18, has been hospitalised four times since December and South Africans have been coming to terms with his increasing frailty.

In Soweto, the township where Mandela lived for more than a decade, James Nhlapo said South Africa must accept Mandela will not live forever.

“There will soon come a time when all the medical help won’t work. We have to face that sad reality now,” he said as he served customers in his grocery store.

Upon his release from jail in 1990 in one of the defining moments of the 20th century, Mandela negotiated an end to apartheid and won the country’s first fully democratic elections.

He served a single term as president, guiding the country away from internecine racial and tribal violence, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading Aids campaigner.

He retired from public life in 2004.
The South African government has been criticised following revelations that the military ambulance that carried Mandela to hospital developed engine trouble, resulting in a 40-minute delay until a replacement vehicle arrived. The presidency said Mandela suffered no harm during the wait for another ambulance to take him from his Johannesburg home to a specialist heart clinic in Pretoria 55km away.

— AFP.