A Giant Passes On

Nelson Madela

After months of battling old-age-related disease, South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, passed on Thursday.

Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

He had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital. In a statement on South African national television, South African President Jacob Zuma said Mandela had "departed" and was at peace. "Our nation has lost its greatest son," Zuma said.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was one of the world's most revered statesmen, after preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years. He had rarely been seen in public since he officially retired in 2004.

"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves," Zuma said. "Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us together and it is together that we will bid him farewell," he added.

Earlier yesterday, there appeared to have been an unusually large family gathering. Among those attending was family elder, Bantu Holomisa. A number of government vehicles were there during the evening as well. 

According to AFP report, two of Mandela's granddaughters and a close family friend, Bantu Holomisa, were among those seen entering the house, which was flanked by more than a dozen cars ferrying visitors and military personnel.

The reason for the large-than-usual gathering was not made public, but it came shortly after Mandela's daughter, Makaziwe, described her father as fighting from his "deathbed," but still being "very strong" and "very courageous". "Even when there are moments when you can see he's struggling, but the fighting spirit is still there with him," she said earlier this week.

Mandela has been receiving around the clock intensive care from military and other doctors since September, when he was discharged from a nearly three-month hospital stay for a lung infection. His grandson, Ndaba, recently told a local broadcaster that Mandela was "not doing well at home in bed".

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and was elected South Africa's first black president in 1994. He stepped down after five years in office.