Post date: Dec 16, 2013 2:48:52 PM
South Africa unveils unity statue to honour former President Nelson Mandela a day after his burial in Qunu.
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (DECEMBER 16, 2013) (REUTERS) - A nine-metre (30-foot) bronze statue of Nelson Mandela with his arms outstretched to symbolise unity and reconciliation was unveiled in South Africa on Monday (December 16), a day after the nation buried the former president and anti-apartheid hero.
The 4.5 tonne statue is the largest of Mandela created in the world so far, and was inaugurated on the lawn of South Africa's hilltop Union Buildings, the seat of the central government, overlooking the capital Pretoria.Mandela died aged 95 on December 5 in Johannesburg and was buried on Sunday in his home village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province following 10 days of emotion-charged mourning that focused the attention of the world on South Africa.
"We gather at this seat of government a day after laying to rest one of the greatest leaders ever produced by our country and the African continent, our former president Nelson Mandela. It has been a difficult period for our country, for Africa and for our friends all over the world. The official mourning period came to an end last night at midnight. And the national flag has been raised at full mast," South African President Jacob Zuma said at the unveiling.
"Let me take this opportunity to thank all South Africans for observing the mourning period with dignity and respect. I thank the Mandela family as well for sharing their moment of grief with all of us, it was indeed a moment of our greatest sorrow as the rainbow nation," added Zuma.
Mandela, often called called "Tata", the Xhosa word for father, is revered as the father of the newSouth Africa born from the ending of apartheid in 1994 when he became its first black president.
The inauguration coincided with South Africa's Reconciliation Day, a public holiday commemorating the ideal of racial and political reconciliation that Mandela preached after his release in 1990 from 27 years in apartheid prisons.
"This government of ours has fully ensured that my grandfather had a dignified sendoff and we applaud you as our government and particularly the ANC leadership for having stood side by side with us a family at this time of grief," said Mandla, Mandela's eldest grandson at the inauguration.
His death left the multi-racial democracy he founded without its living inspiration, still striving for the "Rainbow Nation" ideal of shared prosperity he dreamed of.
Under apartheid rule, Reconciliation Day had remembered the 1838 Battle of Blood River, in which some 500 Afrikaner pioneers defeated more than 10,000 Zulu warriors.
But it was renamed in 1994 in a bid to heal the wounds of three centuries of white dominance.
There are half a dozen Mandela statues in South Africa and around the world, and the new one is expected to draw more visitors to the 100-year-old Union Buildings, which have been declared a national heritage site.
"Madiba" is the Xhosa clan name by which Mandela was affectionately known.
The brown sandstone Union Buildings, built by British colonial architect Herbert Baker, was the site of Mandela's swearing in as president nearly two decades ago.
It was also the location where his body lay in state for three days last week as over 100,000 people paid their respects in person, before his state funeral in Eastern Cape on Sunday (December 15).