The great man is not dead yet.

Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon and father of modern South Africa, dies

<cite id="galleryCaption001">Nelson Mandela, the prisoner-turned-president who reconciled South Africa after the end of apartheid, died on Thursday, December 5, according to the country's president, Jacob Zuma. Mandela was 95.</cite>

• In a nation healing from the scars of apartheid, Nelson Mandela became the moral compass
• With bouts of illness, the anti-apartheid icon faded from the limelight in recent years
• Mandela spent 27 years in prison; 18 of them were on Robben Island

(CNN) -- Nelson Mandela, the revered statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid, has died, South African President Jacob Zuma announced late Thursday.

Mandela was 95.

"He is now resting. He is now at peace," Zuma said. "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father."

"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human," the president said in his late-night address. "We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."

Mandela will have a state funeral. Zuma ordered all flags in the nation to be flown at half-staff from Friday through that funeral.

Mandela, a former president, battled health issues in recent months, including a recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalizations.

With advancing age and bouts of illness, Mandela retreated to a quiet life at his boyhood home in the nation's Eastern Cape Province, where he said he was most at peace.

Despite rare public appearances, he held a special place in the consciousness of the nation and the world.

A hero to blacks and whites

In a nation healing from the scars of apartheid, Mandela became a moral compass.

His defiance of white minority rule and incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world's attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South African government until 1994.

In his lifetime, he was a man of complexities. He went from a militant freedom fighter, to a prisoner, to a unifying figure, to an elder statesman.

Years after his 1999 retirement from the presidency, Mandela was considered the ideal head of state. He became a yardstick for African leaders, who consistently fell short when measured against him.

Warm, lanky and charismatic in his silk, earth-toned dashikis, he was quick to admit to his shortcomings, endearing him further in a culture in which leaders rarely do.

His steely gaze disarmed opponents. So did his flashy smile.

Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 for transitioning the nation from a system of racial segregation, described their first meeting.

"I had read, of course, everything I could read about him beforehand. I was well-briefed," he said last year.

"I was impressed, however, by how tall he was. By the ramrod straightness of his stature, and realized that this is a very special man. He had an aura around him. He's truly a very dignified and a very admirable person."

For many South Africans, he was simply Madiba, his traditional clan name. Others affectionately called him Tata, the Xhosa word for father.

A nation on edge

Mandela last appeared in public during the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. His absences from the limelight and frequent hospitalizations left the nation on edge, prompting Zuma to reassure citizens every time he fell sick.

"Mandela is woven into the fabric of the country and the world," said Ayo Johnson, director of Viewpoint Africa, which sells content about the continent to media outlets.

When he was around, South Africans had faith that their leaders would live up to the nation's ideals, according to Johnson.

"He was a father figure, elder statesman and global ambassador," Johnson said. "He was the guarantee, almost like an insurance policy, that South Africa's young democracy and its leaders will pursue the nation's best interests."

There are telling nuggets of Mandela's character in the many autobiographies about him.

An unmovable stubbornness. A quick, easy smile. An even quicker frown when accosted with a discussion he wanted no part of.

War averted

Despite chronic political violence in the years preceding the vote that put him in office in 1994, South Africa avoided a full-fledged civil war in its transition from apartheid to multiparty democracy. The peace was due in large part to the leadership and vision of Mandela and de Klerk.

"We were expected by the world to self-destruct in the bloodiest civil war along racial grounds," Mandela said during a 2004 celebration to mark a decade of democracy in South Africa.

"Not only did we avert such racial conflagration, we created amongst ourselves one of the most exemplary and progressive nonracial and nonsexist democratic orders in the contemporary world."

Mandela represented a new breed of African liberation leaders, breaking from others of his era such as Robert Mugabe by serving one term.

In neighboring Zimbabwe, Mugabe has been president since 1987. A lot of African leaders overstayed their welcomes and remained in office for years, sometimes decades, making Mandela an anomaly.

But he was not always popular in world capitals.

Until 2008, the United States had placed him and other members of the African National Congress on its terror list because of their militant fight against the apartheid regime.

Humble beginnings

Rolihlahla Mandela started his journey in the tiny village of Mvezo, in the hills of the Eastern Cape, where he was born on July 18, 1918. His teacher later named him Nelson as part of a custom to give all schoolchildren Christian names.

His father died when he was 9, and the local tribal chief took him in and educated him.

Mandela attended school in rural Qunu, where he retreated in 2011 before returning to Johannesburg and later Pretoria to be near medical facilities.

He briefly attended University College of Fort Hare but was expelled after taking part in a protest with Oliver Tambo, with whom he later operated the nation's first black law firm.

In subsequent years, he completed a bachelor's degree through correspondence courses and studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, but left without graduating in 1948.

Four years before he left the university, he helped form the youth league of the African National Congress, hoping to transform the organization into a more radical movement. He was dissatisfied with the ANC and its old-guard politics.

And so began Mandela's civil disobedience and lifelong commitment to breaking the shackles of segregation in South Africa.

Escalating trouble

In 1956, Mandela and dozens of other political activists were charged with high treason for activities against the government. His trial lasted five years, but he was ultimately acquitted.

Meanwhile, the fight for equality got bloodier.

Four years after his treason charges, police shot 69 unarmed black protesters in Sharpeville township as they demonstrated outside a station. The Sharpeville Massacre was condemned worldwide, and it spurred Mandela to take a more militant tone in the fight against apartheid.

The South African government outlawed the ANC after the massacre, and an angry Mandela went underground to form a new military wing of the organization.

"There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and nonviolence against a government whose reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people," Mandela said during his time on the run.

During that period, he left South Africa and secretly traveled under a fake name. The press nicknamed him "the Black Pimpernel" because of his police evasion tactics.

Militant resistance

The African National Congress heeded calls for stronger action against the apartheid regime, and Mandela helped launch an armed wing to attack government symbols, including post offices and offices.

The armed struggle was a defense mechanism against government violence, he said.

"My people, Africans, are turning to deliberate acts of violence and of force against the government, in order to persuade the government, in the only language which this government shows by its own behavior that it understands," Mandela said during a hearing in 1962.

"If there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the government -- ultimately, the dispute between the government and my people will finish up by being settled in violence and by force. "

The campaign of violence against the state resulted in civilian casualties.

Long imprisonment

In 1962, Mandela secretly received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia. When he returned home later that year, he was arrested and charged with illegal exit of the country and incitement to strike.

Mandela represented himself at the trial and was briefly imprisoned before being returned to court. In 1964, after the famous Rivonia trial, he was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government.

At the trial, instead of testifying, he opted to give a speech that was more than four hours long, and ended with a defiant statement.

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination," he said. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

His next stop was the Robben Island prison, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in detention. He described his early days there as harsh.

"There was a lot of physical abuse, and many of my colleagues went through that humiliation," he said.

One of those colleagues was Khehla Shubane, 57, who was imprisoned in Robben Island during Mandela's last years there. Though they were in different sections of the prison, he said, Mandela was a towering figure.

"He demanded better rights for us all in prison. The right to get more letters, get newspapers, listen to the radio, better food, right to study," Shubane said. "It may not sound like much to the outside world, but when you are in prison, that's all you have."

And Mandela's khaki prison pants, he said, were always crisp and ironed.

"Most of us chaps were lazy, we would hang our clothes out to dry and wear them with creases. We were in a prison, we didn't care. But Mandela, every time I saw him, he looked sharp."

After 18 years, he was transferred to other prisons, where he experienced better conditions until he was freed in 1990.

Months before his release, he obtained a bachelor's in law in absentia from the University of South Africa.

Calls for release

His freedom followed years of an international outcry led by Winnie Mandela, a social worker whom he married in 1958, three months after divorcing his first wife.

Mandela was banned from reading newspapers, but his wife provided a link to the outside world.

She told him of the growing calls for his release and updated him on the fight against apartheid.

World pressure mounted to free Mandela with the imposition of political, economic and sporting sanctions, and the white minority government became more isolated.

In 1988 at age 70, Mandela was hospitalized with tuberculosis, a disease whose effects plagued him until the day he died. He recovered and was sent to a minimum security prison farm, where he was given his own quarters and could receive additional visitors.

Among them, in an unprecedented meeting, was South Africa's president, P.W. Botha.

Change was in the air.

When Botha's successor, de Klerk, took over, he pledged to negotiate an end to apartheid.

Free at last

On February 11, 1990, Mandela walked out of prison to thunderous applause, his clenched right fist raised above his head.

Still as upright and proud, he would say, as the day he walked into prison nearly three decades earlier.

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison," he said at the time.

He reassured ANC supporters that his release was not part of a government deal and informed whites that he intended to work toward reconciliation.

Four years after his release, in South Africa's first multiracial elections, he became the nation's first black president.

"The day he was inducted as president, we stood on the terraces of the Union Building," de Klerk remembered years later. "He took my hand and lifted it up. He put his arm around me, and we showed a unity that resounded through South Africa and the world."

Broken marriage, then love

His union to Winnie Mandela, however, did not have such a happy ending. They officially divorced in 1996 after several years of separation.

For the two, it was a fiery love story, derailed by his ambition to end apartheid. During his time in prison, Mandela wrote his wife long letters, expressing his guilt at putting political activism before family. Before the separation, Winnie Mandela was implicated in violence, including a conviction for being an accessory to assault in the death of a teenage township activist.

Mandela found love again two years after the divorce.

On his 80th birthday, he married Graca Machel, the widow of former Mozambique president, Samora Machel.

Only three of Mandela's children are still alive. He has 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren

Symbolic rugby

South Africa's fight for reconciliation was epitomized at the 1995 rugby World Cup Final in Johannesburg, when it played heavily favored New Zealand.

As the dominant sport of white Afrikaners, rugby was reviled by blacks in South Africa. They often cheered for rivals playing their national team.

Mandela's deft use of the national team to heal South Africa was captured in director Clint Eastwood's 2009 feature film "Invictus," starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the white South African captain of the rugby team.

Before the real-life game, Mandela walked onto the pitch, wearing a green-and-gold South African jersey bearing Pienaar's number on the back.

"I will never forget the goosebumps that stood on my arms when he walked out onto the pitch before the game started," said Rory Steyn, his bodyguard for most of his presidency.

"That crowd, which was almost exclusively white ... started to chant his name. That one act of putting on a No. 6 jersey did more than any other statement in bringing white South Africans and Afrikaners on side with new South Africa."

During his presidency, Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights abuses during apartheid. He also introduced housing, education and economic development initiatives designed to improve the living standards of the black majority.

A promise honored

In 1999, Mandela did not seek a second term as president, keeping his promise to serve only one term. Thabo Mbeki succeeded him in June of the same year.

After leaving the presidency, he retired from active politics, but remained in the public eye, championing causes such as human rights, world peace and the fight against AIDS.

It was a decision born of tragedy: His only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS at age 55 in 2005. Another son, Madiba Thembekile, was killed in a car crash in 1969.

Mandela's 90th birthday party in London's Hyde Park was dedicated to HIV awareness and prevention, and was titled 46664, his prison number on Robben Island.

A resounding voice

Mandela continued to be a voice for developing nations.

He criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the 2003 war against Iraq, and accused the United States of "wanting to plunge the world into a Holocaust."

And as he was acclaimed as the force behind ending apartheid, he made it clear he was only one of many who helped transform South Africa into a democracy.

In 2004, a few weeks before he turned 86, he announced his retirement from public life to spend more time with his loved ones.

"Don't call me, I'll call you," he said as he stepped away from his hectic schedule.

'Like a boy of 15'

But there was a big treat in store for the avid sportsman.

When South Africa was awarded the 2010 football World Cup, Mandela said he felt "like a boy of 15."

In July that year, he beamed and waved at fans during the final of the tournament in Johannesburg's Soccer City. It was his last public appearance.

"I would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries," he said. "The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall."

CNN's Robyn Curnow, Michael Martinez, Matt Smith and Alanne Orjoux contributed to this report.

May his soul rest in peace.

Nelson Mandela 1918 - 2013:

Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of modern times, passed away Thursday at his home in Johannesburg after a prolonged lung infection. He was 95.

South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, "the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed," adding that he "passed on peacefully."

"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," Zuma said.

"Our thoughts are with the millions of people who embraced Mandela as their own and who saw his cause as their cause.… This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.”

Mandela will be accorded a state funeral, Zuma said, and national flags will be lowered to half-mast.

"We saw in him what we seek in ourselves. And in him we saw so much of ourselves," he said. "Nelson Mandela brought us together and it is together that we will bid him farewell."

Mandela's respiratory problems in recent years may be connected to his imprisonment, when he contracted tuberculosis after working in a prison quarry. He had been in hospital in recent months.

His hospitalization on June 8, 2013, marked his fifth visit to hospital in two years. In April 2013, he spent 10 days in hospital after being treated for pneumonia.

Mandela was a prominent international figure for more than half a century, first as a leading human rights campaigner in South Africa and then as the world's best-known political prisoner.

Following his release, he again became the leader of the anti-apartheid struggle, and in 1994 became the first president of a democratic South Africa.

On July 18, 2009, the first Mandela Day declared by the United Nations, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke about how "Nelson Mandela has made a lasting imprint on our lives."

Mandela: the first 25 years

Born the son of a tribal chief on July 18, 1918, in the village of Mvezo in Transkei in the Eastern Cape province, he was given the name Rolihlaha Mandela. Rolihlaha roughly translates from Xhosa as "troublemaker." For the white South African government, he would soon live up to his name.

 

Mandela, shown in 2010, married Winnie Madikileza in 1958. (Alexander Joe/Reuters)

 

When Mandela was 9, his father died, and he was sent to live with the chief of the Thembu people.

 

After Mandela was expelled from university because of his protest activity, the Thembu chief arranged a marriage for Mandela, which he avoided by leaving the Transkei for Johannesburg in 1941. He earned a BA from the University of South Africa in 1943 and then a law degree. Around this time, he joined the African National Congress (ANC).

 

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela wrote, "I have no epiphany, no singular destiny, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand unremembered moments, produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people."

Co-founds ANC Youth League

Formed in 1912, the ANC had been pursuing a non-violent constitutional approach to winning human rights for non-whites.

 

Mandela had almost no contact with the outside world during his long imprisonment. (Reuters)

 

In 1944, Mandela co-founded the ANC Youth League. He and other ANCYL leaders pushed for a more militant strategy, one that paid more attention to the needs of the black masses.

 

That same year, Mandela married Evelyn Mase, a cousin of ANC leader Walter Sisulu. Nelson and Evelyn had four children.

 

The implementation of apartheid in 1948 gave added urgency to the ANCYL's cause, and by 1949 they had taken over the leadership of the ANC. Their new program emphasized self-determination for blacks, which was to be achieved through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and civil disobedience.

 

In 1948, Mandela was elected ANCYL secretary and, in 1951, its president.

 

The new ANC program was implemented in 1952 as the "Defiance Against Unjust Laws Campaign." That led to a violent government response and increased prominence for Mandela, who was elected president of the Transvaal ANC and national deputy president that year.

4½-year treason trial

The South African government continued to implement apartheid laws and intensify repression. In 1956, with the protest movement gaining strength, the government charged Mandela and 155 other leaders with treason and other charges.

 

Mandela and then-wife, Winnie, walk hand-in-hand-with after Mandela's release from prison, near Cape Town, in 1990. (Greg English/Associated Press)

 

Mandela led the defence in the 4½-year trial, using the courtroom to defend the ANC and the anti-apartheid cause.

 

While the trial dragged on, police attacked unarmed protesters in the Johannesburg suburb of Sharpeville in 1960. That sparked a new wave of protests, which led the government to ban the ANC and declare a national emergency. Mandela was again detained.

 

Finally, in March 1961, the judge acquitted all the defendants in the treason trial, finding there was insufficient evidence and that the ANC policy was non-violent.

 

During the trial years, Mandela's marriage to Evelyn "collapsed because of differences in politics," according to Mandela, and they divorced. (Evelyn died in 2004.) In 1958, he married Winnie Madikileza and became father to two more daughters.

Mandela goes underground

After the trial, Mandela went underground. In August 1962, Mandela was arrested and charged with helping organize a three-day general strike and leaving the country without a valid travel document.

 

Mandela, shown beneath the window of his prison cell on Robben Island in 2003, visited the island for an AIDS benefit concert. (Mike Hutchings/Reuters)

 

Once again, Mandela used the courtroom to present his ideas of equality. He argued he could not receive a fair trial from a judicial system intended to enforce white supremacy. He was convicted on both charges and sentenced to five years in prison.

 

A police raid on the ANC underground headquarters in 1963 uncovered documents about an ANC guerrilla movement called Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), which Mandela had helped found in 1961. Umkonto claimed to have carried out more than 70 acts of sabotage against the government. Mandela was charged with treason and sabotage.

 

During the trial, Mandela declared from the dock, "I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society, in which all persons will live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an idea for which I hope to live and to see, but, my lord, if it need be, it is an idea for which I am prepared to die." He received a life sentence.

27 years in prison

Mandela spent 18 years in the Robben Island prison, in which time he was forced to quarry limestone, harvest seaweed and endure brutality from the guards.

 

Nelson Mandela greets people as he walks with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on his arrival in Ottawa in 1990 during a three-day visit to Canada. (Wm. DeKay/Canadian Press)

 

In 1982, along with other imprisoned ANC leaders, he was transferred to Pollsmoor prison outside Capetown. He was hospitalized with tuberculosis in 1988, recovered and returned to prison.

 

During his years of imprisonment, Mandela had no contact with the outside world, except visits with Winnie.

 

In 1989, reformer F. W. de Klerk became leader of the governing party and then South African president. Mandela's release seemed imminent.

 

On Feb. 11, 1990, TV networks around the world broadcast Mandela's walk out of the prison gates to freedom.

Resuming the political fight

At age 71, Mandela plunged back into the anti-apartheid fight, soon taking over the leadership of the now-legal ANC.

 

Mandela, his wife Graca Machel and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, celebrate his 89th birthday in Johannesburg. (Reuters )

 

That summer, he embarked on a tour of 13 countries, including Canada, to advocate for a continuation of the international economic sanctions campaign.

 

In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk finally reached agreement on ending apartheid and holding democratic elections. That year, the two men were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

The next year, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Democratic South Africa's first president

In 1994, not only did Mandela vote for the first time, but he was also elected democratic South Africa's first president. The ANC received 63 per cent of the vote.

 

Many predicted bloodshed and feared the possibility of civil war, fuelled by those seeking retribution for years of apartheid policies. But Mandela oversaw a peaceful transition, embarking on a strategy of reconciliation and urging forgiveness for the perpetrators of past apartheid-era crimes.

 

He helped establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which sought to  record human rights violations from all sides of the apartheid struggle, but also had the power to grant amnesty to those who committed abuses.

 

For two years, Mandela headed a coalition government, with de Klerk as deputy president, until de Klerk and his party left the government.

 

In 1996, Nelson divorced Winnie and two years later married Graca Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique.

 

The new South Africa was not easy to govern. In addition to other challenges, the crime rate soared as Mandela's government worked to improve social conditions and rebuild the economy.

 

In 1999, at the completion of one term in office, Mandela stepped down as president, "an old man who wants to go into eternity with a smile on his face," he said.

International mediator

However, the "old man" kept up the pace, mediating peace talks in Burundi that year and the next year overseeing negotiations between Libya and the west concerning the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

 

In 2001, he visited Canada for the third time, becoming an honorary Canadian citizen.

 

The following year, he established 46664, a global HIV/AIDS campaign named for Mandela's prisoner number at Robben Island and famous for organizing benefit concerts around the world. (Mandela's son Makgatho died of AIDS in 2005.)

 

In 2003, he established the Mandela Rhodes Foundation to provide scholarships and mentoring for African youth.

 

While Mandela said in 2004 that he was officially retiring from public life, he nevertheless went on to initiate The Elders in 2007. This group of former global leaders focuses on peace building, securing the release of political prisoners, humanitarian relief and women's rights.

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• Former South African president Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of modern times, passed away Thursday at his home in Johannesburg after a prolonged lung infection. Here, Mandela sits with family in his hometown in Qunu, South Africa. (Peter Morey/AP)
• Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the village of Mvezo, South Africa. He joined the African National Congress, an anti-apartheid political party, in 1943. (Reuters)
• In 1956, Mandela and 155 activists were charged with high treason. He later said his jail cell 'became a kind of convention for far-flung freedom fighters.' (Themba Hadebe/AP)
• Mandela is seen here in 1958 with his wife, Winnie. Mandela was earlier married to Evelyn Mase, with whom he had four children. (Reuters)
• The 1960 Sharpeville massacre spurred the ANC to focus on economic resistance. At a 1961 conference, Mandela urged South Africans to build a new constitution. (Reuters)
• The ANC drafted an armed liberation movement that named Mandela as its chief. Under the name David Motsamayi, Mandela left the country in 1962 and was later arrested. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters)
• Mandela and other members of the ANC, seen in this photo, were charged with sabotage in 1963. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters)
• The court found 14 of the 16 men on trial guilty in 1964. The men were sentenced to life in prison. (Radu Sighet/Reuters)
• Mandela was designated prisoner 466/64 at Robben Island. He corresponded with his family and copied the letters he sent into notebooks, as shown in this photograph. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters)
• Mandela's cell at Robben Island, seen in this photograph, measured about 2.4 x 2.4 metres. (Schalk van Zuydam/AP)
• In 1982, Mandela was sent to Pollsmoor Prison and then to Victor Verster Prison in 1988. The anti-apartheid movement strengthened as countries imposed economic sanctions on South Africa. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters)
• President P.W. Botha offered Mandela freedom if he renounced violence. Mandela's daughter Zinzi said: 'My father says: "I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people are not free."' (Greg English/Reuters)
• President F.W. de Klerk ordered Manela's release. Mandela and his wife, Winnie, are shown in this photo taken as he was freed on Feb. 11, 1990. (AP)
• Mandela's release was met with jubilation. Mandela told a crowd in Soweto, 'We can no longer wait. Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts.' (Sean Woods/AP)
• In May 1990, Mandela and de Klerk met to begin negotiating political change. After a round of intense negotiations, Mandela agreed to halt the ANC 30-year guerrilla war. ((Michael Ulli/Reuters))
• Mandela in 1990 told the European Parliament: '[We are] obliged to you that you battered down the prison doors so that we could be among you and with you.' (Christian Lutz/AP)
• Mandela and de Klerk continued negotiations, slowly and peacefully bringing down apartheid barriers. For their work in dismantling apartheid, the two leaders were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. (Scanfoto/Reuters)
• Mandela launched his bid for the presidency on Jan. 29, 1994. He was forced to confront rumours that there would be acts of reprisal if he won. (Kevin Carter/Reuters)
• In May 1994, Mandela assumed the reins of the presidency, becoming the country's first black president. The ANC captured more than 60 per cent of the vote. (Juda Ngwenya/Reuters)
• Seeking to unite whites and blacks, Mandela urged the country to support the Springbok rugby team in 1995. When the team was victorious in the world final, South Africans celebrated across the country. (Mark Baker/Reuters)
• Although the Mandelas endured a long separation, their marriage was fragile after Nelson's release. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. (Juda Ngwenya/Reuters)
• After five years of negotiations, Mandela in 1996 signed into law a new constitution for South Africa. Mandela is seen here with Ciril Ramaphosa, chairman of the Constitutional Assembly. (Reuters)
• Mandela's government introduced its Truth and Reconciliation Commission that heard of human rights abuses committed from 1960 and 1994. The government and the ANC were criticized for their actions under apartheid. Archbishop Desmond Tutu hands over the TRC report to Mandela in Pretoria on Oct. 29, 1998. (Reuters)
• On his 80th birthday in 1998, Mandela married Graca Machel, the widow of former Mozambican president Samora Machel. The couple are seen in this photograph after a wedding ceremony in Pretoria. (Reuters)
• In 1998, Mandela received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Only two other people – U.S. President George Washington and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill – had ever received the honour. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)
• Mandela and Machel paid a visit to Ottawa in September 1998. (Jim Young/Reuters)
• Mandela opted not to seek a second term in 1999. Thabo Mbeki, left, succeeded Mandela as leader of the African National Congress. ((Juda Ngwenya/Reuters))
• Mandela's final parliamentary address: 'I am the product of Africa and her long-cherished dream of a rebirth that can now be realized so that all of her children may play in the sun.' ((Mike Hutchings/Reuters))
• Mandela in 2004 said he was retiring from public life to spend more time with his family and friends. 'Don't call me; I'll call you,' he joked. (Mike Hutchings/Reuters)
• Mandela in 2007 announced the creation of a new group called the Elders. Mandela said the group would strive to be 'a fiercely independent and robust force for good.' ((Jeff Moore/AP))
• The sporting world focused on South Africa for the World Cup of Soccer in 2010. Fans are seen in this photo before a statue of Mandela outside the stadium in Johannesburg. ((Marcos Brindicci/Reuters))
• Zenani Mandela, Mandela's 13-year-old great-granddaughter, was killed in a car accident before the start of the World Cup. Mandela joined hundreds of mourners at a memorial service for the girl. ((Alexander Joe/Reuters))
• Mandela and his wife, Graca, attended the closing ceremony for the 2010 World Cup, bolstered by cheering fans who called out 'Madiba' – the name of Mandela's clan. ((Michael Kooren/Reuters))

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Nelson Mandela, from apartheid fighter to president and unifier

Reuters – 6 hours ago, Friday, December 06, 2013, Source

Message written by mourners are seen outside the residence of former South African President Nelson Mandela in johannesburg December 6, 2013. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibekp

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy, as an icon of peace and reconciliation who came to embody the struggle for justice around the world.

Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule, Mandela emerged determined to use his prestige and charisma to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war.

"The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come," Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa's first black president in 1994.

"We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation."

In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid.

Mandela went on to play a prominent role on the world stage as an advocate of human dignity in the face of challenges ranging from political repression to AIDS.

He formally left public life in June 2004 before his 86th birthday, telling his adoring countrymen: "Don't call me. I'll call you". But he remained one of the world's most revered public figures, combining celebrity sparkle with an unwavering message of freedom, respect and human rights.

Whether defending himself at his own treason trial in 1963 or addressing world leaders years later as a greying elder statesman, he radiated an image of moral rectitude expressed in measured tones, often leavened by a mischievous humor.

"He is at the epicenter of our time, ours in South Africa, and yours, wherever you are," Nadine Gordimer, the South African writer and Nobel Laureate for Literature, once remarked.

Former Archbishop of Capetown and veteran anti-aparthied campaigner Desmond Tutu (R) holds a mass at Cape Town's Anglican St. George's Cathedral December 6, 2013/ Reuter/Sumaya Hisham

Mandela's years behind bars made him the world's most celebrated political prisoner and a leader of mythic stature for millions of black South Africans and other oppressed people far beyond his country's borders.

Charged with capital offences in the 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," he told the court.

"It is an ideal I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

DESTINED TO LEAD

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, destined to lead as the son of the chief councilor to the paramount chief of the Thembu people in Transkei.

He chose to devote his life to the fight against white domination. He studied at Fort Hare University, an elite black college, but left in 1940 short of completing his studies and became involved with the African National Congress (ANC), founding its Youth League in 1944 with Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu.

Mandela worked as a law clerk then became a lawyer who ran one of the few practices that served blacks.

In 1952 he and others were charged for violating the Suppression of Communism Act but their nine-month sentence was suspended for two years.

Mandela was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid, going underground in 1961 to form the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, or 'Spear of the Nation' in Zulu.

He left South Africa and travelled the continent and Europe, studying guerrilla warfare and building support for the ANC.

After his return in 1962, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to five years for incitement and illegally leaving the country. While serving that sentence, he was charged with sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government along with other anti-apartheid leaders in the Rivonia Trial.

Branded a terrorist by his enemies, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, isolated from millions of his countrymen as they suffered oppression, violence and forced resettlement under the apartheid regime of racial segregation.

He was incarcerated on Robben Island, a penal colony off Cape Town, where he would spend the next 18 years before being moved to mainland prisons.

He was behind bars when an uprising broke out in the huge township of Soweto in 1976 and when others erupted in violence in the 1980s. But when the regime realized it was time to negotiate, it was Mandela to whom it turned.

In his later years in prison, he met President P.W. Botha and his successor de Klerk.

When he was released on February 11, 1990, walking away from the Victor Verster prison hand-in-hand with his wife Winnie, the event was watched live by television viewers across the world.

"As I finally walked through those gates ... I felt even at the age of 71 that my life was beginning anew. My 10,000 days of imprisonment were at last over," Mandela wrote of that day.

ELECTIONS AND RECONCILATION

In the next four years, thousands of people died in political violence. Most were blacks killed in fighting between ANC supporters and Zulus loyal to Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party, although right-wing whites also staged violent actions to upset the moves towards democracy.

Mandela prevented a racial explosion after the murder of popular Communist Party leader Chris Hani by a white assassin in 1993, appealing for calm in a national television address. That same year, he and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Talks between the ANC and the government began in 1991, leading to South Africa's first all-race elections on April 27, 1994.

The run-up to the vote was marred by fighting, including gun battles in Johannesburg townships and virtual war in the Zulu stronghold of KwaZulu Natal.

But Mandela campaigned across the country, enthralling adoring crowds of blacks and wooing whites with assurances that there was a place for them in the new South Africa.

The election result was never in doubt and his inauguration in Pretoria on May 10, 1994, was a celebration of a peoples' freedom.

Mandela made reconciliation the theme of his presidency. He took tea with his former jailers and won over many whites when he donned the jersey of South Africa's national rugby team - once a symbol of white supremacy - at the final of the World Cup in 1995 at Johannesburg's Ellis Park stadium.

The hallmark of Mandela's mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated apartheid crimes on both sides and tried to heal the wounds. It also provided a model for other countries torn by civil strife.

In 1999, Mandela, often criticized for having a woolly grasp of economics, handed over to younger leaders - a voluntary departure from power cited as an example to long-ruling African leaders.

A restful retirement was not on the cards as Mandela shifted his energies to fighting South Africa's AIDS crisis.

He spoke against the stigma surrounding the infection, while successor Thabo Mbeki was accused of failing to comprehend the extent of the crisis.

The fight became personal in early 2005 when Mandela lost his only surviving son to the disease.

But the stress of his long struggle contributed to the break-up of his marriage to equally fierce anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie.

The country shared the pain of their divorce in 1996 before watching his courtship of Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel, whom he married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

Friends adored "Madiba", the clan name by which he is known.

People lauded his humanity, kindness, attention and dignity.

Unable to shake the habits of prison, Mandela rose daily between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. to exercise and read. He drank little and was a fervent anti-smoker.

An amateur boxer in his younger days, Mandela often said the discipline and tactics drawn from training helped him to endure prison and the political battles after his release.

RAINBOW NATION

But prison and old age took their toll on his health.

Mandela was treated in the 1980s for tuberculosis and later required an operation to repair damage to his eyes as well as treatment for prostate cancer in 2001. His spirit, however, remained strong.

"If cancer wins I will still be the better winner," he told reporters in September of that year. "When I go to the next world, the first thing I will do is look for an ANC office to renew my membership."

Most South Africans are proud of their post-apartheid multi-racial 'Rainbow Nation'.

But Mandela's legacy of tolerance and reconciliation has been threatened in recent years by squabbling between factions in the ANC and social tensions in a country that, despite its political liberation, still suffers great inequalities.

Mandela's last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he donned a fur cap in the South African winter and rode on a golf cart, waving to an exuberant crowd of 90,000 at the soccer World Cup final, one of the biggest events in the country's post-apartheid history.

"I leave it to the public to decide how they should remember me," he said on South African television before his retirement.

"But I should like to be remembered as an ordinary South African who together with others has made his humble contribution."

(Writing by Andrew Quinn and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Angus MacSwan)

Benign Machiavelli: Nelson Mandela was ‘as clever as he was virtuous, as cunning as he was bold’

Graeme Hamilton, 06/12/13 11:15 PM ET, Source - National Post

President of the African National Congress (ANC) Nelson Mandela raising a clenched fist to supporters upon his arrival for an election rally ahead of the 1994 general elections in Mmabatho. Much has been made of Nelson Mandela's sacrifice but he wouldn't have been able to lead South Africa out of apartheid were it not for his polished political skills.

On the day after his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela addressed reporters from around the world at a news conference at Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s mansion outside Cape Town.

After 27 years a prisoner of South Africa’s apartheid state, Mr. Mandela amazingly betrayed not a hint of bitterness toward his captors.

"Whites are fellow South Africans, and we want them to feel safe"

“Whites are fellow South Africans, and we want them to feel safe, to know that we appreciate the contribution they have made towards the development of this country,” he said.

Among the reporters present was John Carlin, then correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent. In his book Knowing Mandela published this year, he reflected on the significance of the message.

Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie celebrate upon his release from prison in February 1990.

“It was a staggeringly generous statement to make of a people who, since the arrival of the first Dutch settlers in 1652, had treated the black indigenous population as second-class citizens or outright slaves,” Mr. Carlin wrote.

“But there was much more to it than an expression of human kindness. Mandela revealed himself to us as a cold-eyed pragmatist, as a chess player always five moves ahead of his opponent.”

Since Mr. Mandela’s death Thursday at age 95, much has been made of his sacrifice, his generosity, his charisma, all of which are central to his story. But the truth is the man who has been called a benign Machiavelli would never have been able to lead South Africa out of apartheid were it not for his polished political skills.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela Has Died Aged 95 Former South African President Nelson Mandela waves to the media as he arrives outside 10 Downing Street, in central London, 28 August 2007, for a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mandela is to attend the unveiling Wednesday of a statue in his honour opposite the British parliament. The wraps will be taken off the statue Wednesday and will see the likeness of the 89-year-old Nobel peace prize winner stand alongside the likes of former British prime ministers Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli.

In prison, he became a student of Afrikaner society, learning his oppressors’ language and befriending his white jailers. It was an insight he would use to convince the country’s whites he could be trusted “to forgo the path of revenge that their guilty consciences feared,” Mr. Carlin wrote. “He was as clever as he was virtuous, as cunning as he was bold.”

Mr. Mandela’s ability to bring together disparate factions within the opposition movement was as remarkable as his power to charm white South Africans. His credibility among South African blacks stemmed in part from the sacrifice he had made during nearly three decades behind bars, but there was more.

“He was incredibly intelligent, very strategically astute, very measured and incredibly disciplined,” said David Black, a professor of international development studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rare are the leaders today prepared to make the kind of self-sacrifice Mr. Mandela displayed.

Files: African National Congress (ANC) President Nelson Mandela, wearing leopard skin traditional clothes, releases a white dove for peace at a rally to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the massacre of 69 black demonstrators by the police, 21 March 1994, in Sharpville, south of Johannesburg.

“It’s about his strategic acumen, but it’s also about his integrity, which was exceptional,” Prof. Black

Though Mr. Mandela entered prison as a proponent of armed struggle against apartheid, he emerged convinced only peaceful negotiations could bring his people freedom.

“Mandela was nothing if not a political realist, and there was no question, I think of the ANC [African National Congress] and the other liberation movements being able to defeat the South African security services,” said John Campbell, senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “That simply wasn’t on.”

When it came time to negotiate, he had a leg up.

“By getting to understand his Afrikaner jailers, he in effect is transforming them from being enemies into being opponents,” Mr. Campbell said. “And with opponents, you can do a deal.”

Mr. Mandela was “a master of the use of symbols,” Mr. Campbell added.

One of his most successful efforts came when South Africa was host to the 1995 World Cup of rugby. South Africa’s national team, the Springboks, were seen as an embodiment of apartheid, to the point where blacks routinely cheered for whoever happened to be the Springboks’ opponents.

But when Mr. Mandela, a year into his presidency, appeared on the field wearing a Springbok jersey and cap before their final against New Zealand, he shrewdly signaled to the mostly white crowd he was the president of all South Africans. He was greeted with chants of “Nelson!”

Rainbow nation: Children with placards showing the face of Nelson Mandela and referring to his clan name "Madiba", march to celebrate his life, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, Dec. 6, 2013.

Rainbow nation: Children with placards showing the face of Nelson Mandela and referring to his clan name "Madiba", march to celebrate his life, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, Dec. 6, 2013.

“Mandela, a politician who saw opportunities where others did not even know they existed, set himself the implausible task of transforming a sport that for decades had been a symbol of hatred and division into an instrument of national reconciliation,” Mr. Carlin wrote.

There are some who argue the push for reconciliation, masterful as it was, came at a cost: socio-economic disparities produced by apartheid have not been fully addressed. Mr. Mandela’s ANC abandoned its policies for nationalizing industries and redistributing wealth.

“You can argue this was a smart, judicious, pragmatic thing to do,” said John Saul, professor emeritus of political science at York University.

“I think, myself, you could as easily say it was a sellout. This is a hard call.”

But he does not blame Mandela as much as his party.

Mandela congratulating South Africa's rugby team captain Francois Pienaar before handing him the Webb Ellis Cup after the 1995 Rugby World Cup final match between South Africa and New Zealand in Johannesburg.

“The ANC ditched the people, and they made a separate peace with capitalism, and the society is unequal and full of discontent because of it,” he said.

Prof. Black said Mr. Mandela’s embrace of reconciliation was both principled and pragmatic.

“I think he had a deep, principled commitment to a politics of reconciliation that came from his personal upbringing, but I think as well he had made the strategic calculation that it was the only way forward for South Africa,” he said.

A young boy sits where well-wishers have paid tribute to the ailing Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where he is being treated for a lung infection on June 30, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa

In an interview for a PBS documentary about Mr. Mandela, a tribal chief from his home region of the Eastern Cape said part of what seems to be cunning politics to Western observers stemmed from values learned as a child.

Ndaba Mtirara was asked to explain how Mr. Mandela could sit down for tea after his release from prison with Betsy Verwoerd, widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the father of apartheid.

“We have no grudge against any wrongdoers … [If] you are a leader, everybody, all people are your subjects, be they thieves, murderers or whatever they are,” he said.

“They are your subjects. You have to listen to them. You have to pay homage to them when the occasion arises.”

National Post

• Email: ghamilton@nationalpost.com

Saying goodbye to Mandela: Leaders arrive in South Africa to pay last respects

CTVNews.ca Staff, Published Monday, December 9, 2013 6:41AM EST, Last Updated Monday, December 9, 2013 2:06PM EST, Source

 

The front page of the program for the memorial service

to late South African president Nelson Mandela

 

As world leaders begin to arrive in South Africa to attend the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, final preparations are underway for the ceremony that will honour the anti-apartheid hero and former president.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, the Assembly of First Nations national Chief Shawn Atleo, along with the premiers of Nova Scotia, Alberta and the Yukon also made the journey.

 

U.S. President Barack Obama is also scheduled to attend the memorial service, along with first lady Michelle Obama and former U.S. presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

 

Other world leaders expected to attend include U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

 

Located in Johannesburg, bordering the township of Soweto, FNB Stadium has a capacity of just under 95,000. It is in this same stadium that Mandela made his final public appearance in 2010 during the World Cup, where he was greeted with wild cheers and applause.

 

General seating in the stadium is on a first come, first serve basis, CTV News' Daniele Hamamdjian told Canada AM, speaking from Johannesburg.

And with dozens of world leaders expected to attend the ceremony, security is a top priority.

 

Thousands of officers will be on hand to help direct traffic, protect attendees and aid the security teams of visiting heads of state, Lt. Gen. Solomon Makgale of the South African Police Service told The Associated Press. As well, private security firm Sidas Security will have 1,500 guards on duty Tuesday. As late as Monday, the company was still hiring guards.

 

Roads surrounding the stadium will be closed off Tuesday, as will the airspace over the stadium.

 

John Thompson, vice-president of intelligence at Strategic Capital Intelligence Group, told CTV News Channel that specific security challenges include organizing motorcades, communication frequencies and finding adequate housing for the world leaders.

 

Thompson, whose firm is not involved in providing security for Mandela's memorial service, said that while every international gathering is a potential target for terrorists, he would classify the threat level in Johannesburg as "low."

 

While there may be problems with crowds and possibly organized crime, terrorism "isn't likely," Thompson said.

 

Meanwhile, as South Africans continue to mourn the death of Mandela, the shock and sadness has started to shift toward a celebration of his incredible life.

 

In some parts of the city, there have been spontaneous bursts of singing and dancing as South Africans celebrate his 95 years of life.

 

Once the seating in FNB stadium is maxed out, members of the public will be redirected to three other venues that will be broadcasting the memorial service: Ellis Park Stadium, Orlando Stadium and Dobsonville Stadium.

 

The memorial service is expected to last about four hours, and while the program remains a closely-guarded secret, an initial program was released Monday.

 

Among the speakers slated to speak at the service include: South African President Jacob Zuma, Obama, Namibian President Hifkepunye Pohamba, Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz, Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

 

Members of Mandela's family, including some of his grandchildren, will also pay tribute to the leader on Tueday.

 

Hamamdjian said the fact that so many world leaders, many from opposing sides of the political spectrum, are making the trek to Johannesburg is a testament to the impact Mandela had on the world.

 

"To have Stephen Harper reach across the aisle and invite the leader of the Opposition and the premiers speaks a lot to that," she said.

 

Following the service, Mandela's body will lie in state in Pretoria's Union Buildings from Wednesday to Friday. A funeral service for Mandela will be held in Qunu, his rural hometown, on Sunday.

 

Thousands are also expected to attend the funeral service.

 

With files from The Associated Press and CTV Senior Broadcast Producer Rosa Hwang

Mourners from Nigeria, sing outside the

homeof former president Nelson Mandela

in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday,

Dec. 9, 2013. (AP / Themba Hadebe)

 

A portrait former president Nelson Mandela,

placed outside his residence in Johannesburg,

South Africa, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013.

(AP / Themba Hadebe)

CBC – 7 hours ago, Tueday, December 10, 2013, Source

U.S. President Barack Obama told tens of thousands of people gathered in a South African soccer stadium today that Nelson Mandela was "the last great liberator of the 20th century," a tribute to the man who became a global symbol of reconciliation.

"We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again," Obama said during a 20-minute speech at FNB stadium in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg where more than 100 world leaders assembled for a memorial honouring the anti-apartheid leader, who died last Thursday at the age of 95.

"He makes me want to be a better man. He speaks to what's best inside of us. After this great liberator is laid to rest, and when we've returned to our cities and villages and rejoined our daily routines, let us search for his strength, let us search for his largeness of spirit somewhere inside of ourselves."

Obama called Mandela "a giant of history."

"In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; through persistence and faith," Obama said as rain poured down on those in attendance.

The speech received a standing ovation.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and four former Canadian prime ministers attended the ceremony, which was held in the township that was the stronghold of support for the anti-apartheid movement that Mandela embodied — as an activist, a prisoner of the white apartheid regime for 27 years and as the country's first black president.

Mandela's legacy of reconciliation seemed to be present at the memorial, as Obama shook the hand of Cuban President Raul Castro on his way to the podium, underscoring a recent warming of relations between their two countries, which do not have formal diplomatic relations.

South African President Jacob Zuma called Mandela the "father and hero" of South Africa. He announced that the Union Buildings amphitheatre in the capital, Pretoria, where Mandela was sworn in as the country's first black president in 1994 has been renamed Nelson Mandela amphitheatre.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the crowd that Mandela "is at rest, his long walk complete."

"Mr. Mandela was more than one of the greatest pillars of our time," the UN chief said. "He was one of our greatest teachers. He taught by example. He sacrificed so much ... for freedom and equality, for democracy and justice.

Matlhogonolo Mothoagae, a marketing student who arrived hours before the gates to the stadium opened, said she would not have the life she has today if not for Mandela.

"He was jailed so we could have our freedom," she said.

Rohan Laird, the 54-year-old CEO of a health insurance company, said he grew up during white rule in a "privileged position" as a white South African and that Mandela helped whites work through a burden of guilt.

"His reconciliation allowed whites to be released themselves," Laird said. "I honestly don't think the world will see another leader like Nelson Mandela."

Workers were still welding at a VIP area as the first spectators arrived, reflecting the enormous logistical challenge of organizing such a huge gathering.

The rain and some transportation problems appeared to keep the crowds away. The 95,000-seat stadium was about half full when the event began at noon local time, an hour late, with the national anthem. At the crowd's peak, the stadium was about two-thirds full.

Some of the dozens of trains reserved to ferry people to the stadium were delayed because of a power failure. Metrorail services spokeswoman Lilian Mofokeng said more than 30,000 mourners were successfully transported by train.

Rain sent those who arrived early into the stadium's covered upper deck, and many of the lower seats were empty.

CBC reporter Kim Brunhuber said from Pretoria that anyone looking for a flawless memorial would have been disappointed. An overflow stadium meant for those who couldn't get into the main venue only attracted a handful of people.

"If this wasn't the send-off that befitted the legacy of Nelson Mandela, maybe it was symbolic of the messy but earnest work in progress that is this country," he said.

The country still has a faltering education system and an uneven record on providing basic services, along with allegations of corruption and cronyism. The gulf remains wide between the wealthy white minority and millions of blacks mired in poverty. The unemployment rate is 25.2 per cent.

Despite the weather and many speakers whom the crowd found uninspiring, the mood was still celebratory.

"Africans are saying that when a great man falls, the rain is blessings," CBC reporter Susan Ormiston said from the stadium.

People blew on vuvuzelas, the plastic horn that was widely used during the World Cup soccer tournament held in South Africa in 2010.Others sang songs from the era of the decades-long struggle against the system of racial segregation.

"It is a moment of sadness celebrated by song and dance, which is what we South Africans do," said Xolisa Madywabe, CEO of a South African investment firm.

CBC reporters in the stadium said the speakers were difficult for the crowd to hear over the stadium sound system, but they let their feelings be known about various world leaders as they were shown on the giant screen.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, were met with cheers, as was Mandela's successor, Thabo Mbeki. However, the crowd booed former U.S. president George W. Bush. Zuma, who gave the keynote address, was booed repeatedly by many of the stadium attendees, though the crowd quieted to listen when he gave his speech.

Many South Africans are unhappy with Zuma because of corruption scandals plaguing his government, though his ruling African National Congress, once led by Mandela, still remains the front-runner ahead of elections next year.

Canada's official delegation arrived Monday morning. Harper, his wife, Laureen, and former prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Joe Clark were at the memorial.

Other members of the Canadian delegation included:

Former governors general Adrienne Clarkson and Michaëlle Jean.

Assembly of First Nations national chief Shawn Atleo.

Canada's high commissioner to South Africa, Gaston Barban, and his wife, Jane.

"We've been listening to the singing of tens of thousands who've gathered here," Atleo said from inside the stadium shortly before the memorial began. "It's a feeling of both sorrow and I think deep pride and the celebration of the life of an incredible man."

​Clarkson told CBC News it was unfortunate that Canada did not have a speaker at the memorial, noting that Mulroney and Clark both stood against apartheid when many conservatives did not, and that Mandela was made an honorary Canadian citizen during Chrétien's leadership.

"I feel that Canada is missing here, and I regret it enormously," she said.

Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair, four provincial premiers and several MPs were also in attendance.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford worked for Mandela in the early 1990s when South Africa was in transition and developing a new constitution.

"He was a very tough taskmaster," Redford said as she watched the memorial. "He always had a sense of humour, and I think that's what kept him on track."

Other speakers included Raul Castro and Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao, and the crowd included a mix of royalty, statesmen and celebrities.

French President ​François Hollande and his predecessor and rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, arrived together. Mandela's widow, GracaMachel, and former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, were at the stadium, and gave each other a long hug before the ceremonies began. Celebrities included actor Charlize Theron, model Naomi Campbell and U2 singer Bono.

Tuesday was the 20th anniversary of the day Mandela and South Africa's last apartheid-era president, F.W. de Klerk, received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid.

Mandela said in his acceptance speech at the time: "We live with the hope that as she battles to remake herself, South Africa will be like a microcosm of the new world that is striving to be born."

The soccer stadium was also the spot where Mandela made his last public appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2010 World Cup. After the memorial, his body will lie in state for three days at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, once the seat of white power, before burial Sunday in his rural childhood village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province.