Post date: Jun 29, 2013 10:1:1 AM
U.S. President Barack Obama starts his South Africa visit, meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma.
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 29, 2013) (REUTERS) - U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will meet on Saturday (June 29) with relatives of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, but they will not visit the hospital where the former South African president is critically ill, theWhite House said.
Obama could be seen arriving at Pretoria's Union Building on Saturday ahead of bilateral talks with South African President Jacob Zuma. The two leaders are set to deliver joint statements later in the day.Obama is in South Africa on the second stop of a three-nation Africa tour. His visit had triggered intense speculation that the United States' first African-American president might visit 94-year-old Mandela in the Pretoria hospital where he has spent three weeks being treated for a lung infection.
"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the White House said in a statement.
The Obamas would meet privately with members of the Mandela family "to offer their thoughts and prayers at this difficult time," the statement added.
Since starting his Africa tour in Senegal on Thursday (June 27), Obama has paid fulsome tribute to Mandela, the man globally admired as a symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation for the way he led South Africa out of white-minority rule.
The U.S. president has called Mandela a "personal hero" and is due to make a tour on Sunday of Robben Island, the former penal colony where Nelson Mandelapassed 18 of the 27 years he spent in apartheid jails.
White House officials said Obama would hold a "town hall meeting" on Saturday with youth leaders in Soweto, the Johannesburg township known for 1976 student protests against apartheid.