Post date: Dec 14, 2013 11:52:5 AM
The body of Nelson Mandela is flown to his ancestral home after a farewell ceremony at Pretoriamilitary airport.
WATERKLOOF, NEAR PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (DECEMBER 14, 2013) (SABC) - Nelson Mandela's body was flown on Saturday (December 14) to South Africa's Eastern Cape region, headed for a state funeral on Sunday (December 15) in his ancestral village.
In a farewell ceremony attended by South African President and ANC leader Jacob Zuma, his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe and former President Thabo Mbeki, Mandela's coffin, draped in the green and yellow ANC flag, was loaded onto a C-130 plane before departing to his final destination.The ANC send-off came after nine days of intense and emotion-charged mourning and memorial activities held in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
This included three days of lying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria from Wednesday (December 11) to Friday (December 13) in which more than 100,000 people queued for hours to say a last personal goodbye to the nation's first black president.
Escorted by fighter jets, Mandela's body was being flown by South Africa's airforce to his Eastern Cape home region, where it would be taken to the family home at Qunu, a village among rolling green hills, 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg.
There, a state funeral will take place on Sunday combining military pomp and traditional rites of Mandela's Xhosa abaThembu clan. It will be attended by family members, national leaders and foreign guests including Britain's Prince Charles and U.S. civil rights activist Reverend Jessie Jackson.