Mandela, anti-Apartheid Icon is Dead

Nelson Mandela, whose successful struggle against South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation and discrimination made him a global symbol for the cause of human rights and earned him the Nobel Prize, died Thursday. He was 95.

There are many thousands of political prisoners but in the last 50 years only one of them, Mandela, turned his imprisonment into a tool to create political change and national liberty.

The South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon, led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

The BBC reported that Mandela had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital.

In a statement on South African national TV, Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president,  said Mandela had "departed" and was at peace.

"Our nation has lost its greatest son,"  Zuma said.

He said Mandela would receive a full state funeral, and flags would be flown at half-mast.

BBC correspondents said Mandela's body will be moved to a mortuary in Pretoria, and the funeral is likely to take place next Saturday.

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 officially retiring in 2004. He made his last public appearance in 2010, at the football World Cup in South Africa.
"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."

US President Barack Obama said  Mandela achieved more than could be expected of any man.

The greatest father there ever was: this is how South Africans will remember the man who brought an end to apartheid and delivered the nation from the brink of civil war.

Social networking sites are abuzz with messages of condolences and messages of gratitude to the late statesman. He had been in and out of hospital in recent years and had become increasingly frail but many South Africans had continued to express their unreadiness to lose him.

As he did in life, his passing has brought unity amongst South Africans as black and white speak of their love for him. Many here will be drawing on that same spirit for strength, that "Madiba magic" over the next few days and weeks as the nation left with the great burden of honouring Mandela's legacy, mourns his passing but also celebrates his life.

"He no longer belongs to us - he belongs to the ages," Obama said, saying  Mandela "took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice".

Obama, the first black president of the United States, said he was one of the millions who drew inspiration from Mr Mandela's life.

FW de Klerk, who as South Africa's last white president ordered Mr Mandela's release, paid tribute to the man he called a friend.

"He made a unique contribution not only to the establishment of our constitutional democracy but also to the cause of national reconciliation and nation-building," he said in a statement.

He said Mandela's example would live on.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron also paid tribute, saying "a great light has gone out in the world".

Earlier this year, Mandela spent nearly three months in hospital with a recurring lung infection.

He was moved to his home in the Houghton suburb of Johannesburg in September, where he continued to receive intensive care.

Born in 1918, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943, as a law student.

He and other ANC leaders campaigned against apartheid. Initially he campaigned peacefully but in the 1960s the ANC began to advocate violence, and Mr Mandela was made the commander of its armed wing.

He was arrested for sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, serving most of his sentence on Robben Island.

It was forbidden to quote him or publish his photo, but he and other ANC leaders were able to smuggle out messages of guidance to the anti-apartheid movement.

He was released in 1990 as South Africa began to move away from strict racial segregation - a process completed by the first multi-racial elections in 1994.

Mandela, who had been awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993 jointly with white President FW de Klerk, was elected South Africa's first black president. He served a single term, stepping down in 1999.

After leaving office, he became South Africa's highest-profile ambassador, campaigning against HIV/Aids and helping to secure his country's right to host the 2010 football World Cup.

He was also involved in peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and other countries in Africa and elsewhere.

A look back at the life of Nelson Mandela

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