Preparation for Mandela Tributes -- Dec 9, 2013

Soccer City

Tens of thousands of people, including more than 90 heads of state, are expected to converge on the calabash to bid farewell to former president Nelson Mandela.  This stadium has a capacity of 95,000 people, and it is expected that it will reach its capacity for this event. Located in Soweto, it is only fitting that this service should be held near the home of Nelson Mandela before he was imprisoned. 

President Obama will join other world leaders who have been invited to speak.  We don't plan to attend the memorial service, but we plan to go to the viewing of the body as it lies in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

The Union Buildings

The preparations for the memorial services and the lying in state of President Mandela's body have brought traffic to a near standstill in Pretoria.  We drove near the Union Buildings where the body will lie in state on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Gridlock prevailed as traffic officers closed streets to reroute traffic and prepare for the daily procession that will bring the body to the union buildings.  But we were able to navigate our way through a massive throng of people converging  to view the body over a three day period.

We plan to join that throng to pay our respects on Wednesday.  For us, this is an opportunity that has come full circle.  We were in South Africa at the beginning of the transition to a democratic nation in 1995.  The Union Buildings were erected as the center of government by the Afrikaners who settled in Pretoria and became the architects of the Apartheid system.  We saw President Mandela transform a nation from oppression and hatred to collaboration and hope.  Now we have an opportunity to pay our respects to this hero who has meant so much to so many at the very site that for so long was a symbol of what he lived his life to overcome. It is such a joy and providential timing that we are able to be here at this time.

Amandla!