Mourners gather for Mandela memorial in Johannesburg
Tens of thousands of people have gathered at a large stadium in the South African city of Johannesburg for a memorial service for the anti-apartheid Icon, Nelson Mandela.
On Tuesday, mourners stood in the rain waiting for several hours to enter FNB Stadium in Soweto, the Johannesburg township, which was a stronghold of support for the anti-apartheid struggle.
The ceremony, set to begin at 11 a.m. local time (0900 GMT), is expected to last four hours at the 95,000-capacity soccer venue, where Mandela made his last public appearance during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
South African President Jacob Zuma is slated to address the crowd. Some 100 heads of state and other luminaries have taken part in the memorial service.
Four of Mandela’s grandchildren are also expected to make speeches during the ceremony.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, India’s President Pranab Mukherjee, US President Barack Obama, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Cuban President Raul Castro as well as Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe are among those attending the Tuesday memorial.
Three former US presidents, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, will also be present.
South Africa is observing a series of commemorations leading up Mandela’s state funeral on Sunday. His casket is due to lie in state for three days in Pretoria before being flown to the village of Qunu in Eastern Cape, where he was born.
The former South African president passed away at the age of 95 on December 5 in his Johannesburg home.
Mandela led South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s after nearly three decades in prison and was one of the towering political figures of the 20th century.
He served as president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election.
