Nelson Mandela
President Barack Obama has ordered all United State flags to be flown at half-mast Thursday night to sunset on Monday in honour of South Africa anti-apartheid leader, Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday as tributes from world leaders and notable people all over the world continue to pour in.
“Mandela no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages,” Mr. Obama said in a moving tribute moments after the death of former South African was announced.
Similarly the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, also ordered that the country’s flag in all government and public buildings be flown at half-mast on Thursday and on the day of his funeral.
Meanwhile, tributes have continued to pour in following the death of the man who is credited for reconciling white and black South Africans after the brutal apartheid era that saw the black majority suffering human rights abuses under successive white minority regimes.
F.W. De Klerk, South Africa’s last white president, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 described him “as a great unifier and a very, very special man in this regard beyond everything else he did.”
“It’s extremely sad and tragic news, were just been reminded about what an extraordinary and inspiring man Nelson Mandela was and my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family right now,” said Prince Williams, who learnt of Madiba’s (as Mandela is fondly called by South Africans) passing at the premiere of “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” a new film about his life alongside Mandela’s two youngest daughters. His two daughters left the cinema as soon as they were told of their father’s death but asked that the screening be continued.
The film’s producer announced the news to the audience at the end of the screening and asked for a minute silence in honour of the fallen leader.
“He was a unifier from the moment he walked out of prison. He taught us how to come together and believe in ourselves.” said human rights activist and Nobel Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Mandela was born in 1918 he was sentenced to life in imprisonment by the apartheid government for his armed struggle against a government infamous for killing unarmed protesters. He spent 27 years in prison and after his release was elected first black South African president in 1993.
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