Johannesburg – As former president Nelson Mandela finally rests, it is certain his face will be enveloped in a gentle, enduring smile, former ANC secretary general Walter Sisulu said in a posthumous letter published in The Star on Monday.

Sisulu, who with Mandela wrote tributes to each other before their respective deaths, said overarching Mandela’s life of struggle, hardship, humiliation and pain, “there must be a sense of fulfilment that he had left an indelible footprint in the service of humankind”.

“His is a life that touched millions not only in South Africa, not only in our continent of Africa, but throughout the world,” Sisulu said.

“For the greater part of his life he was a beacon of the struggle. In his later years he became the symbol of hope. In death he stands confirmed as the embodiment of humanity’s hope for the future.”

Truth for Mandela was never something out there, clinically defined, and dispassionately stated.

“He combined passion with his search for truth and understanding… He was at heart a man of action,” Sisulu said.

“And when he loved, he loved.”

Friends, colleagues, comrades and family of Nelson Mandela are invited to share their memories and tributes, and to light a candle for him, on his profile at Remembered.co.za.
– SAPA