Post date: Jun 28, 2013 3:51:17 PM
U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to South Africa comes not at an awkward time, a spokesman for the ruling-African National Congress party says, despite former President Nelson Mandela remaining critically ill.
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 28, 2013) (REUTERS) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party members on Friday (June 28) joined hundreds of their compatriots to pray and release balloons for the ailing former president,Nelson Mandela, outside of the Pretoria hospital where he remains critically ill, on the same day U.S. President Barack Obama is due to arrive in the country.
It is still unclear whether Obama will be able to visit Mandela, a hero of the U.S. President, with the discretion of any visit left to the family.Spokesman for the ANC, Jackson Mthebu, denied though that it was an awkward time for Obama to make his first state visit to the country since assuming the presidency in 2008.
"In the world, in what is happening, I am wondering whether there are any times that are not awkward, because sometimes it could be economic meltdown, or whatever, in this instance it is Madiba who is ill," he said.
"Indeed, from where we are seated, we would have wished that Obama was coming here and Madiba was well and up and about and be able to see and welcome Obama, but that is not to be," he told Reuters television.
"That it doesn't mean that it's an awkward time because there are many other things that Obama is going to do in the country, but there are even things that speaks to Madiba's ideal," Mthebu added.
People have been streaming in their hundreds to offer notes, flowers and prayers for Mandela at a wall surrounding the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero remains in a stable but critical condition, according to the government.
School children, prayer groups and office workers together with comrades and supporters who followed Mandela in the anti-apartheid fight have trickled past the hospital day-by-day, passing a gauntlet of journalists and camera crews camped outside the main gate.
Fallen notes have been collected and replaced with new ones, some written in crayon by children and others penned by adults expressing their appreciation for Madiba, the clan name by which Mandela is affectionately known.
Guards have propped up stuffed animals and placed flowers in water, lining them along the base of the wall.
Mthebu said that since the seriousness of Mandela's illness became apparent, ANC members have been quick to help organise the support outside the hospital.
"We only came here when the President said Madiba's condition is critical. We started flocking in here to say our well wishes," he said.
"But again yesterday, when we started flocking in, there were also prayer sessions organised, there was a prayer session a kilometre away from here, where members of the ANC and other church bodies, business bodies, were holding a prayer for Madiba to recover," Mthebu added.
Mandela's health deteriorated last weekend, bringing the sombre realisation for South Africa's 53 million people that the man who epitomised defiance of white minority rule and forged the post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation" may not be with them forever.