مانديلا يشارك في تشييع ابنة حفيدته
زيناني ومن خلفها مانديلا وبعض افراد اسرتها (الرياض)جوهانسبورغ - ي ب ا
شارك الرئيس الجنوب أفريقي الأسبق نيلسون مانديلا امس الخميس في مراسم تشييع ابنة حفيدته زيناني التي قتلت في حادث سير قبل يوم واحد من انطلاق مباريات كأس العالم.
وذكر موقع "تايم لايف" الجنوب أفريقي أن مانديلا حضر إلى جنازة زيناني (13 سنة) برفقة زوجته غراسا ماشيل.
كما شاركت في الجنازة زوجة مانديلا السابقة زيني ماديكيزيلا مانديلا.
وقال متحدث باسم جمعية نيلسون مانديلا للأطفال إنه تم دفن جثمان زيناني في وقت سابق هذا اليوم (امس) لتتمكن العائلة من المحافظة على خصوصيتها في المراسم.
وكان مانديلا قد تغيب عن افتتاح مباريات كأس العالم الأسبوع الماضي بسبب وفاة زيناني.
Mandela family pain tempers South Africa's joy
- Paul Kent
- From: News Limited newspapers
THE funeral was over and the mourners walked out of the church, in black clothing with splashes of pink.
As they got outside many stood back, waiting.
They were waiting to be near one man, and when he finally came out Nelson Mandela was wearing a long black coat with two pink roses buttoned on. He was taller than you imagined, and greater.
This is his first appearance in public since he missed the World Cup Opening Ceremony on the day his great-granddaughter died.
The greatness was not in the people waiting to see him, or in the people pushing to be close to him, even at a funeral.
It was not in the security guards that seemed to come from everywhere once he left the church or the constant references to him during the service.
Or even the gentle humility as he acknowledged those that were around
When Mandela came out of the methodist church at St Stithians, following the funeral of his great-granddaughter Zenani, who died in a car accident eight days ago, the people waited to see him and he walked slowly to a waiting golf buggy.
The buggy was to take him the 30m or so to his car, because he is 91, now, and frail, yet he knew he was a statesman even though his body appeared tired, and he carried himself as such.
And as everybody watched him make this short journey, all around the greatness of Mandela was apparent.
It was not just in the young black girl, confused as she looked at the gathering crowd, wondering what it was about until he came around the corner.
"Oh," she said, "That's what's happening."
She then began bouncing on her feet, finding a way to let the small rush of adrenaline run out of her.
The greatness was not just in the small black boy, about eight, who looked through the rear window as Mandela got in his car.
"I can see the back of his head!" he said.
The church Mandela just left was built in 1953, five years after the formation of apartheid, at what was then an exclusive whites-only school.
Zenani, a 13-year-old black girl, was attending the school when she died.
It is no small claim to say South Africa is hosting the World Cup, the reason for many of us being there, because of this man.
Or that the country is now viewed so differently than it had been for many years, because of this man.
Yet not even that is the greatness.
After he got in the car, a young white girl in school uniform walked out of the church, her eyes wet with tears, and wrapped her arms around a young black girl in an identical uniform.
Arms around each other, they wept together.
Twenty years ago such a scene would have been impossible.
As Mandela drove away, his greatness was in the details left behind
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Nelson Mandela attends great-granddaughter's funeral
Zenani Mandela, who had just turned 13, was killed in car crash on way home from World Cup opening concert on Friday
David Smith in Johannesburg guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 June 2010 12.56 BSTArticle history
Nelson Mandela arrives for the funeral service. Photograph: Themba Hadebe/Reuters
The 91-year-old former South African president, Nelson Mandela, today joined grieving family members at his great-granddaughter's funeral.
Zenani Mandela, who had just turned 13, was killed in a car crash on her way home from the World Cup opening concert in the early hours of Friday morning.
Mandela pulled out of the opening ceremony of the tournament that afternoon.
His appearance at the chapel of St Stithians College, in Johannesburg, was his first in public since February, when he attended the opening of parliament, marking the 20th anniversary of his release from prison.
With Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and several other Mandelas present, it was effectively a gathering of the nation's first family.
Despite the sombre mood and bitter cold, the ageing patriarch looked resilient and unbeaten. As he and his wife, Graca Machel, were driven from the chapel in a golf buggy, he smiled and waved to onlookers.
Stepping down from the buggy, Mandela, wearing a corsage of pink roses on the lapel of his black coat, seemed in no hurry to leave. He gazed around the gathering and, spotting a friend, called out: "Hello Peter, how are you?" Almost reluctantly, he then climbed stiffly into the back of a black BMW.
Earlier, Machel could be seen patting Mandela's white hair as they arrived at the chapel for the memorial service, which followed the burial of Zenani earlier in the day.
The couple sat in the front pew, a few places away from Madikizela-Mandela, Mandela's ex-wife, who was Zenani's great-grandmother.
Mandela, who has also endured the deaths of two sons, sat upright and straight-backed. He broke into a smile during lighter moments in the memorial service, such as when a troupe of singers and dancers performed a number in Zenani's honour.
The hundreds of guests watched a montage of family portraits, including a photograph of Mandela being hugged by Zenani, one of nine great-grandchildren, projected on to a screen while a recording of Lean on Me was played.
Zenani's classmates, wearing school blazers, each held a single white rose and stood with other mourners to sing Amazing Grace as the service began in the chapel of the Johannesburg private school she had attended.
It featured pop songs, hymns from the Soweto Gospel Choir and a poem by Maya Angelou. Zenani was described as "an angel gone too soon" and "a ray of sunshine" who loved cooking and setting up beauty pageants and fashion shows.
In a curious moment, the programme director Mbuso Thabethe expressed irritation at how half a dozen "godmothers" had come forward since Zenani's death.
This may have been a swipe at the British model Naomi Campbell, who delivered a video message in which she said she considered Zenani her goddaughter.
"I was truly blessed to have been able to say that we walked and laughed and got to play dress-up," Campbell said. "She will remain in my heart forever."
A moving message from Zenani's mother, Zoleka Mandela-Seakamela, who is the daughter of Mandela's daughter Zindzi Mandela, was read out.
"I should have let you sleep longer when you told me when you were tired," it said. "I should have let you go to more socials, dates and parties. I should have given you more money, more hugs, more kisses, and I should have whispered in your ear more often that I love you.
"If I did all this, would you come back to me, if only for a few seconds?"
One speaker recalled how Zenani had told him: "I want to have my first baby when I'm 20, my second baby when I'm 22. Then I'm going to get married." Asked why in that order, she replied: "I want my kids to come to my wedding."
Another told the congregation: "The family, the grandmothers always observed she was always an old soul. She observed things other people didn't observe and didn't know."
Among those present were the lawyer George Bizos, who defended Mandela during the apartheid years, and Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela. Family members each wore a pink item of clothing.
Sizwe Mankazana, 23, the driver in the one-car accident in which Zenani died, will appear in court on 26 July.
Mankazana was arrested after the accident on possible charges of drunken driving and culpable homicide. His father is in a relationship with Zenani Mandela-Dlamini, a daughter of Mandela