MTHATHA, South Africa - The body of former South African President Nelson Mandela was flown Saturday from Pretoria to Mthatha in his native Eastern Cape province in preparation for a state funeral and burial to be held today.
At a ceremony Saturday, the military handed Mandela’s body over to the African National Congress, the party he led to victory as South Africa’s first black president in 1994.
Mourners paid respects at his coffin, draped in the party’s black, gold and green flag, at a military base near the capital, Pretoria.
“We are sending you back to Qunu,” President Jacob Zuma said, referring to the village where Mandela grew up and where he will be buried. “We hope you rest in peace.”
Eight uniformed pallbearers accompanied the coffin, which was also draped in South Africa’s national flag, as it was carried to a waiting C-130 military transport plane. The plane was escorted by two fighter jets, lifting off from Waterkloof air base.
In Mthatha, the plane was greeted with full military honors, and Mandela’s body was carried through the city so residents could pay their respects.
Hundreds of residents gathered along the roads leading from Mthatha to Qunu, singing, clapping and waving South African flags.
“He is our father; we must welcome him home,” said Boneka Mpopoma, 48, a schoolteacher who walked several miles from her village to join the throng. She said that in the Xhosa culture, it was essential to be buried in the lands of ancestors. “You must bury him where he was born,” she said. “He must rest with his father’s fathers.”
As the caravan carrying Mandela snaked its way through Mthatha, the scene outside his home in Qunu was placid. There were some soldiers in the street, but it was mostly quiet. Security was tight; security personnel in plain clothes scolded a young man and threatened to confiscate his cellphone when he took it out to take a picture of the distant setup where Mandela’s funeral will be held.
Felicity Mgoqi, 58, who returned to Qunu, the town where she grew up, to bury her mother Saturday, said she thought it was unfair that community members could not freely attend Mandela’s funeral. It is not customary to issue invitations for a funeral in Xhosa tradition, village elders said, because everyone is welcome.
“We are very disappointed that they didn’t let us see him,” said Sibongiseni Hloma, a clerk in the local courts. “In our culture, funerals are for the whole community. Nobody is invited, because everyone is invited.
“Now we are so very sad, because we didn’t see him when he’s buried,” she said.
Nomanono Molletye, a 61-year-old grandmother who was out to greet the motorcade, said that Mandela would not have approved of the exclusion of ordinary people from his funeral. “Madiba always treated everybody the same,” Molletye said, referring to Mandela’s clan name. “There were no VIPs to him.”
On Saturday, the spokesman for retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu said the Nobel Prize-winning cleric has changed his plans and will attend the funeral.
Tutu had said he canceled plans to attend the funeral of Mandela, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, after learning that his name was not on the list of accredited guests.
“Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would be disrespectful to Tata to gate-crash what was billed as a private family funeral,” the archbishop said in a statement, referring to Mandela by one of his many honorific nicknames. “Had I been informed I was invited, there’s no way on Earth I would have missed it.”
But government officials said the archbishop, as an eminent citizen of South Africa, was invited and promised to clear up any misunderstanding.
Spokesman Roger Friedman said late Saturday that Tutu will take a flight early this morning to attend the service. He did not say what brought about the change in Tutu’s plans.
The funeral will be held today under a domed marquee constructed for the occasion in the verdant hills adjacent to the house that Mandela built in Qunu. Thousands of guests will be shuttled by bus to the event, and a number of heads of state and other prominent people will attend, including the presidents of several neighboring countries, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Prince Charles of Britain.
The state funeral will be televised, and Mandela will be buried in a private ceremony for the family shortly afterward, the government said. Information for this article was contributed by John Eligon of The New York Times and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 12/15/2013