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Nelson Mandela Great Person Has Been Passed Away
By Hemant Verma On Thursday, December 5, 2013
Technology,
World
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Mandela dies at 95. South Africa's greatest son and a beacon freedom around the world. Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president and its "greatest son", who led his country out of apartheid and became a hero to millions around the world, died peacefully at his home in Johannesburg on Thursday at the age of 95.
Mandela passed away with family members around him at his home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton just before 9pm, after more than a year of ill health caused by a lung infection.
The announcement of Mandela's death came in a televised address to the nation by President Jacob Zuma at 11.30pm in South Africa, or 9.30pm in Britain. It followed several hours of speculation prompted by reports that his family and his friends had been flocking to his bedside. "He is now resting", Zuma said.
"He is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss." Zuma announced a period of national mourning and said South African flags would fly at half mast around the world until Mandela's state funeral was held in the coming weeks. His body is expected to be taken to the capital Pretoria, where he will lie in state. "Nelson Mandela brought us together, and it is together that we will bid him farewell," Zuma added.
"Let us express, each in our own way, the deep gratitude we feel for a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity." It is not known which of Mandela's family members were with him when he died. He has been married three times and has three surviving children and 17 grandchildren. Mandela's death came five months before the 20th anniversary of his inauguration as South Africa's first black, democratic president, a day for which he endured 27 years' imprisonment at the hands of the apartheid government. The announcement of Mandela's death sent many South Africans on to the streets. Some made their way to his home in Houghton, where they lit candles and sang the struggle anthem Shosholoza. Broadcasters began showing the coverage that they had prepared for so long, and television screens were filled with images of Mandela's well-known salt and pepper hair, his smile-crinkled eyes and bright shirts, beaming broadly as he clutched the hands of nearly every world leader and celebrity of his generation. Tributes were made from around the world.
10 things Nelson Mandela said that you have to know
One family friend who went to the house told The Telegraph just hours before his death was confirmed: "I think it's beyond everyone now. It's what everyone knew for months but it's still hard." In recent years, Mandela had suffered from a series of respiratory illness that most recently saw him spend several months in hospital in Pretoria. His release back to his home in September was greeted with none of the jubilation of his previous rallies back to health. This time, South Africans were under no illusion that the end was near. Nelson Rolihlahla (meaning "troublemaker") Mandela began as a fiery young lawyer who battled South Africa's apartheid, first by organising mass acts of defiance and later through armed resistance. When he was jailed in 1962, following a tip-off by the US Central Intelligence Agency, he was seen as a terrorist in South Africa and abroad. By the time he was released 27 years later, his name had become synonymous around the world with the struggle for justice against tyranny and oppression.
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