Nelson Mandela’s dead body has been
transferred to the government seat in Pretoria,
South Africa in preparation for his burial
ceremony on Sunday.
Mandela’s corpse will lie in state in Pretoria for
3 days ahead of the funeral service.
Thousands of people lined the streets on
Wednesday as Nelson Mandela’s funeral
cortege proceeded through the streets of
Pretoria from 1 Military Hospital to the Union
Buildings, the seat of the South African
government.
The coffin is to be moved back and forth from
the hospital to the Union Buildings every day
for the next three days, and the casket with
Mandela’s body will be on display for the public
to pay its respects at stipulated times.
The Union Buildings are where Mandela was
inaugurated as the country’s first black
president in 1994 after the end of South
Africa’s apartheid system, which segregated
whites and blacks under white-minority rule.
The lying-in-state comes after a memorial
service in Soweto’s World Cup Stadium on
Tuesday in which US President Barack Obama
was among those to pay tribute to the life and
legacy of Mandela.
On Friday evening, his body will be flown to
Eastern Cape province for a traditional service
on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be a state
funeral and burial at Mandela’s ancestral village
of Qunu.
Mandela’s death last Thursday at the age of 95
has sparked mourning and expressions of grief
both in South Africa itself and in the
international community, where he was widely
seen as an icon of racial reconciliation and a
moral authority.
[Sources: DW, AFP, DPA & Reuters]
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