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Monday, December 16, 2013
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
Mandela buried in a blaze of glory PAUL AREWHE
WITH AGENY REPORT
S
outh African former president and antiapartheid champion, Nelson Mandela, was buried in his home village, Qunu, yesterday in a blaze of glory after a funeral that mixed ancient tribal rituals with a celebrated display of the modern. Military officers, both black and white, rolled Mandela’s flag-draped coffin to the family burial plot in his village. Formations of planes and military helicopters, South African flags flapping from the bellies, flew over the green hills where thousands
of mourners had gathered. Unlike a public memorial service on Tuesday at a stadium that was rife with problems, the funeral and burial — broadcast on many TV channels — went smoothly, although behind schedule. The ceremonies mixed solemnity with joy at Mandela’s accomplishments lasted all morning and into the afternoon and were fit for African royalty. Mandela, South Africa's first black president is descended from royalty. Several thousands gathered in a huge white tent at the Mandela family compound for the state funeral that preceded
a private service at the gravesite. Songs, speeches and the boom of artillery rang across the fields and a tribal chief draped in animal skin declared: “A great tree has fallen.” Mandela spent 27 years in jail as a prisoner of the apartheid white government and emerged to lead a transition to a multiracial democracy. He died on December 5 at the age of 95 after a protracted illness. His portrait looked over the assembly in the tent from behind a bank of 95 candles representing each year of his remarkable life. His casket, transported to
the tent on a gun carriage, rested on a carpet of cow skins below a lectern where speakers delivered eulogies. Ahmed Kathrada, an anti-apartheid activist who was jailed on Robben Island with Mandela, remembered his old friend's "abundant reserves" of love, patience and tolerance. He said it was painful when he saw Mandela for the last time, months ago in his hospital bed. Some listeners wiped away tears as Kathrada spoke. "He tightly held my hand, it was profoundly heartbreaking," Kathrada said, his voice quavering with emotion. "How I wish I never had to confront what I saw.
L-R: First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and Malawian President Joyce Banda at the Church wedding service of Dr. Kambe, President Banda's daughter in Lilongwe, Malawi, on Saturday.
I first met him 67 years ago and I recall the tall, healthy strong man, the boxer, the prisoner who easily wielded the pick and shovel when we couldn't do so." The songs and speeches in the tent ceremony were broadcast on big screens in the area, including at one spot on a hill overlooking Mandela's property. Several hundreds gathered there, some wearing colours of the African National Congress, ANC — the liberation movement-turned political party that Mandela used to lead — and occasionally breaking into songs. "A great tree has fallen, he is now going home to rest with his forefathers," said Chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima, a representative of Mandela's family. "We thank them for lending us such an icon." Mandela's widow, Grace Machel, and his second wife, Winnie MadikizelaMandela, were dressed in black and sat on either side of South African President Jacob Zuma. Guests included veterans of the military wing of the ANC, the liberation movement that became the dominant political force after the end of apartheid, as well as US Ambassador Patrick Gaspard and other foreign envoys. Britain's Prince Charles, Monaco's Prince Albert II, US television
personality Oprah Winfrey, billionaire businessman Richard Branson and former Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were also there. After the ceremony in the tent, a smaller group of guests walked to a family grave site. Bayanda Nyengule, head of the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha and Qunu, was one of the eyewitnesses to the private burial. "I realised that the old man is no more, no more with us you know," Nyengule said. "The moment when the coffin went down into the ground I felt too emotional." Mandela was co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize along with F.W. de Klerk, the last president of the apartheid government, for his efforts at bringing about a peaceful transition in South Africa. He had emerged from prison in 1990 advocating forgiveness and reconciliation, and became president after South Africa's first all-race elections, in 1994. He served one five-year term. The burial ended 10 days of mourning ceremonies that included a massive stadium memorial in Johannesburg and three days during which Mandela's body lay in state in the capital, Pretoria.
Impeach Jonathan now, APC tells N’Assembly CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
tisanship and save Nigeria from imminent collapse by immediately kick-starting the impeachment process, saying that was the only way to protect the nation's democracy and unity. APC also accused President Jonathan of embracing corruption and providing succour to corrupt public officials. It said such actions threatened the country's unity through divisive policies and politics. The party also alleged that Jonathan's administration was frittering away the nation's resources through “unprecedented cronyism and clannishness”. It will be recalled that a letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo last week also accused Jonathan of con-
doning corruption and engaging in acts capable of destroying the country. In a statement issued by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos, the party said it was issuing the call “with a high sense of responsibility and the strong belief that the impeachment of the President is a legitimate constitutional option available to the National Assembly to protect the nation's democracy”. The statement reads in part: “Our country is drifting dangerously and our people are divided now perhaps more than at any other point in our history, with the exception of the civil war period. “There is a total failure of leadership, even as insecurity, unprecedented corruption, palpable impunity, massive unemployment and hunger stalk the land.
“Since the raison d’être of any government is the security and welfare of the citizenry, and the present administration has failed to live up to the justification of its existence, there can be no other definition of gross misconduct than that. “Therefore, the time has come for the head of that government, on whose desk the buck stops, to be removed through the provisions stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is the patriotic thing to do. “If the National Assembly fails to act and do so very fast, it will share with the clueless and feckless Jonathan administration, the eternal blame for bringing to naught the hard work of the nation's heroes past and for crashing and dashing the hopes of millions of Nigerians, especially the youth who are the leaders
of tomorrow.” The party said anyone that says that the call for the removal was outlandish to remember that “all it takes to torpedo this democracy is for this increasingly-paranoid government to get a pliant judge to put a judicial stamp on just one of its litany of illegalities. The party added while Nigerians were very much aware of the failings of this government in all sectors, it was important to remind them that the government had not been up to scratch in fighting corruption, which could bring the nation to its knees. It said that insecurity had worsened so much that even those saddled with the security of protecting the nation were being attacked and killed at will. APC also cited impunity, “best exemplified in Rivers
State where a Commissioner of Police no longer takes orders from the Inspector-General”. The party said the government had also failed to provide jobs for Nigerian youths, even as it daily reeled out phantom figures of economic growth that only served to keep the socalled Ivy League-trained officials in charge of the economy on their jobs. It also said that electricity generation has so plummeted that many will celebrate the forthcoming Yuletide in darkness. “The talk out there now is that Nigeria has never had it so bad. But the government may not know because it has distanced itself from the people. “Therefore, for embracing corruption so much and providing succour to corrupt public officials; for threatening the country's fragile unity through divi-
sive policies and politics, for frittering away the nation's resources through unprecedented cronyism and clannishness, and for a total failure of leadership, this President deserves to be slammed with the cudgel of impeachment,” the party said. Reacting to the APC call, the Presidency warned that the party should be ready to face treason charges. It also challenged those accusing Jonathan of training 1,000 snipers to provide the evidence or keep quiet. Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement said that APC or any persons who make themselves tools for the breach of public order and safety would be made to face the full sanctions of the law. The Presidency deCONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>