Johannesburg – Two decades ago in Oslo, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk stood side by side in Oslo and accepted the Nobel peace prize, a moment that epitomised the reconciliation of enemies.

But that powerful gesture of forgiveness on December 10, 1993 might never have happened.

When it became clear that Mandela would receive the prestigious award in tandem with a man who ensured he spent 27 years in prison, he came under fierce pressure to decline.

When the telephone rang on October 15, 1993 with the Nobel committee’s decision, “the reaction was quite strong and some of us were very hesitant about supporting the joint thing with De Klerk,” Tokyo Sexwale told AFP.

“We were, some of us, very concerned. We can’t have Nelson Mandela, such an icon, receiving this thing with his oppressor,” said Sexwale.

The situation was fraught.

Talks with De Klerk’s government were already at an advanced stage, and the two men often sparred bitterly.

All-race elections had been slated for April the following year.

Meanwhile supporters from the ANC and Zulu party Inkatha were killing each other in the streets, and die-hard apartheid supporters were thought to be fanning the violence.

“Remember, there was a lot of violence in South Africa,” said Sexwale.

Thousands died in clashes in the four years up to the 1994-polls.

At the same time there was a lot of bitterness toward the apartheid government, which had assassinated many ANC activists, said Sexwale.

“We suffered, we had family members killed, friends assassinated. We saw apartheid bombing our offices,” he recalled.

“So how do you reconcile with this people?”

ANC leaders pointed out that Albert Luthuli and Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu had won the prize earlier as individuals.

“So we were saying, Nelson Mandela doesn’t need it with another person, and above all with a man who has just jailed him,” said Sexwale.

“But it’s (Mandela) himself who convinced us about the correctness of what was happening.

“Reconciliation is not an easy thing. So we had to show that a De Klerk can be embraced.”

“It was used by Mandela as a tool to show the example of his dialogue and leadership,” Sexwale remembered.

Meanwhile the reaction at the then-president’s office was the opposite.

“I phoned to say I had good news from Oslo,” De Klerk’s former aide Dave Steward said.

“He was delighted,” despite boos from some Norwegians when De Klerk greeted the crowds with Mandela from a hotel balcony in Oslo on December 10, 1993.

“It was a very happy moment full of hope in a period that wasn’t easy,” Steward added.

Mandela’s friend Nadine Gordimer, a recent Nobel literature laureate, travelled to Oslo, along with Mandela’s lawyer George Bizos.

“It was a kind of betrayal to see he had to share and to see the apartheid president had something to share with Mandela,” the 90-year-old writer told AFP.

In his speech De Klerk emphasised the “change of heart” from both sides.

Mandela praised “the common humanity that bonds both black and white into one human race”.

He saluted his “compatriot and fellow laureate”, who “had the courage to admit that a terrible wrong had been done to our country and people through the imposition of the system of apartheid.”

Neither man had access to the other’s Nobel acceptance lecture beforehand.

It’s an emotional time for South Africans, and many around the world. Share your fondest memories of Madiba with us by either e-mailing or uploading.

– AFP

Johannesburg – Former president Thabo Mbeki on Sunday challenged South Africa’s leadership to ask if they are living up to Nelson Mandela’s standards, in an apparent public challenge to his ANC comrades.

Mbeki – who succeed Mandela as president in 1999 and was ultimately ousted by Jacob Zuma in a party coup – questioned whether current leaders were living up to Mandela’s values.

“I think to celebrate his life properly we need to ask ourselves a question about the quality of leadership,” Mbeki told a prayer gathering at the Oxford Shul synagogue in Johannesburg.

“To say: ‘to what extent are we measuring up to the standard they (Nelson Mandela and his generation) set in terms of the quality of leadership?'”

Nepotism, corruption

The leadership of the ruling African National Congress, previously headed by Mandela and Mbeki, has come under increasing fire over claims of nepotism and corruption.

The ANC under Zuma is preparing for national elections next year even as he faces accusations of using over R200m worth of taxpayer money on upgrading his private residence.

Mbeki said the remaining task of transforming South Africa into a truly free, fair and equal society was “in many respects more difficult than the struggle to end the system of apartheid”.

“Surely that must mean that therefore this challenge of leadership becomes much more important, much more complex in the context of what needs to be done,” he added.

Mandela values

Mbeki said South Africans must examine their loyalty to the values that Nelson Mandela and his generation had espoused.

“Are we in whatever echelon of our society, whatever we are doing in politics, in business, in unions, in civil society … do we have the quality of leadership such as was exemplified by Mandela and others, sufficient to respond to the challenges we face?” he said.

“As we celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela this becomes a central task, that we reflect on what needs to be done to sustain his legacy, to ensure that we do not betray what he and others sacrificed for, what he and others stood for.”

– 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.

– AFP

Johannesburg – At least 41 trains will be transporting mourners to the memorial service of former president Nelson Mandela, Metrorail said on Sunday night.

The trains, which have the capacity to transport between 60 000 and 80 000 people from all over Gauteng, will be free of charge, it said in a statement.

“Metrorail will provide a safe, reliable, efficient and hassle-free transport service to thousands of mourners expected to attend the official memorial service to reflect on Madiba’s life and his contribution to the world.

“Metrorail invites Gauteng residents to make use of the available trains to share in the sombre… occasion of the loss of the African jewel and rejoice in commemorating the legacy and life of our first democratically elected transformational leader.”

Mandela died at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Thursday night at the age of 95.

The memorial service will be held at the FNB stadium on Tuesday. The train service will run from 05:00.

Metrorail said it would also transport passengers to the overflow venues – Ellis Park Stadium, Orlando Stadium and the Dobsonville Stadium.

Autopax, a subsidiary of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, has also made 300 buses available to transport dignitaries to the FNB stadium.

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.

– Share your memories of Nelson Mandela with us.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – More than 70 heads of state and government are expected in South Africa this week to attend funeral events for former president Nelson Mandela, with most due to attend a huge memorial service in Johannesburg on Tuesday, officials said.

“The whole world is coming to South Africa,” foreign ministry spokesperson Clayson Monyela said.

After what has been billed as one of the largest gatherings of global leaders in recent history, only a handful of dignitaries would go to Sunday’s state burial in Mandela’s ancestral home of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, he added.

“We’re trying to keep that to the family,” Monyela told Talk Radio 702.

It’s an emotional time for South Africans, and many around the world. Share your fondest memories of Madiba with us by either e-mailing or uploading.

– Reuters

Cape Town – Head of EyeWitnessNews, Gasant Abarder, has been appointed as the new Cape Times editor following the dismissal of Alide Dasnois.

Mail & Guardian reported that the former Cape Argus (also an Independent Newspapers group publication) editor will head up the Cape Times after Dasnois was removed by the group’s controlling shareholder, Sekunjalo Consortium.

An internal staff memo welcomed Abarder back to the group and wished him the best for his new role.

The reason for Dasnois’ dismissal was unclear but it coincided with the Cape Times having published a front page article on public protector Thuli madonsela’s findings which implicated Sekunjalo Consortium in an R800m tender irregularity with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

Dasnois was apparently offered a different position within the company but told the Mail & Guardian that she was seeking legal advice.

– News24

Johannesburg – Activity outside Nelson Mandela’s former Soweto house was increasing on Monday morning.

Crowds of people gathered to sing and dance in celebration of the former president’s life.

“I am here to pay my last respect to Tata for what he has done for the nation,” Lesego Tabude said.

Many people delivered flowers and personalised messages inscribed on cards.

Some visitors wore traditional South African outfits or clothes bearing the South African colours.

“We are South African, we our proud of our heritage. Mandela is our father,” said Kagiso Mponde wearing traditional Zulu attire.

Mandela died on Thursday night at his Houghton, Johannesburg, home at the age of 95, and people spontaneously started gathering outside his old home in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, and in Houghton.

His funeral is scheduled to take place in Qunu in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, where he grew up.

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

Johannesburg – The ANC will lay out condolence books at its Johannesburg headquarters, all provincial offices and parliamentary constituency offices from Monday morning, it said.

Spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said the offices of its alliance partners [the SA Communist Party, the Congress of SA Trade Unions and the SA National Civic Organisation] would also lay out books for citizens to leave messages for former president Nelson Mandela and his family.

The books will be laid out from 09:00 on Monday.

Mandela died at his Houghton, Johannesburg, home on Thursday night at the age of 95.

“The African National Congress, South Africans and the world at large continue to mourn the passing… of comrade Nelson Mandela,” said Mthembu.

The ANC said it would hold provincial memorial services for Mandela in all nine provinces this week.

“These memorial services will be addressed by leaders of the ANC and various leaders coming from our fraternal organisations that shall be in South Africa to console and support the Mandela family and South Africans during this difficult time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town said there were various places where people could leave messages for Mandela and his family.

“These messages will be collected, bound into a commemorative book and sent to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory,” said spokesperson Priya Reddy in a statement on Sunday.

“Members of the public can visit any of the commemorative sites across the city to lay flowers or write their messages in special remembrance books.”

The sites included the Grand Parade, the Civic Centre, OR Tambo Hall, the Swartklip sports complex and the Muizenberg Civic Centre.

“People can use this opportunity to explain what Madiba meant to them, or share their fondest memory of him,” said Reddy.

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

Johannesburg – Abathembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo stepped in to quell any disagreements among the Mandela family ahead of former president Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, The Times reported on Monday.

Dalindyebo visited Mandela’s Houghton home two days after Mandela’s eldest daughter Makaziwe wrote to her nephew Mandla Mandela demanding he remove his four dogs from Mandela’s house in Qunu, Eastern Cape, according to the report.

A security official at the Qunu home on Sunday reportedly told the newspaper Mandla had removed his dogs from the house.

The king, at a meeting with Mandela’s family on Sunday, called for unity.

“Every family member must respect each other and support each other,” he reportedly said to those present.

“Everything must be done with love and peace. We have to support each other.”

Mandela died at the age of 95 at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Thursday night.

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

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

Johannesburg – Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has likened former president Nelson Mandela to Moses, his office said in a statement on Monday

“He said in Nelson Mandela, God gave South Africa a… Moses to lead and liberate his people from apartheid and oppression,” his office said.

Moses is a religious figure who freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Ndebele along with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi attended a prayer service for Mandela at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Johannesburg on Sunday.

“He [Ndebele] described the departed Mandela as a giant of South Africa, a giant of Africa, and a giant of the world which South Africans must be proud of and emulate.”

Mandela died at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Thursday at the age of 95.

President Jacob Zuma told reporters in Johannesburg on Friday that Sunday would be a national day of prayer and reflection for Mandela.

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.

– Share your memories of Nelson Mandela with us.

– SAPA