Thousands turned away as mourners bid farewell to Mandela December 13, 2013 | Filed under: main story | Author: Editor South African police turned away thousands of mourners attempting to pay their respects to former President Nelson Mandela, who was lying in state for a final day at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. About 50,000 people filed past the body today after being bussed in from various sites across the capital city, bringing the number of people who viewed Mandela’s coffin to 100,000 over three days. Police let “a few hundred” extra people through barriers at the Union Buildings after the cut-off time because of the long wait they had endured, spokesman Solomon Makgale said by phone. “We urge people to please not make their way to the park-and-ride facilities,” the government said in a statement. “Additional numbers will make it physically impossible for people to be safely transported to the Union Buildings and get the opportunity to file past the body.” Mandela, who died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95, will be buried in Qunu in the Eastern Cape province on Dec. 15 in a ceremony that will be attended by about 5,000 people, including the U.K.’s Prince Charles and Reverend Jesse Jackson, a U.S. civil rights activist. The funeral will end 10 days of memorial events for South Africa’s first black president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for helping to negotiate a peaceful end to white minority rule under apartheid, Bloomberg reports. The lines of people “is a constant reminder to all of us that Madiba belonged to the people and it is only correct that he returned to the people before his journey back to Qunu,” Themba Matanzima, a spokesman for the Mandela family, told reporters in Johannesburg, referring to Mandela by his clan name. Lines stretched for miles today outside the gardens to the entrance to the Union Buildings as thousands of mourners, many carrying umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun, waited to pay their respects to Mandela. Women dressed in traditional outfits and the green and black colors of the ruling African National Congress sang as the hearse carrying his casket draped in the South African flag passed by. “I could not see him while he was still alive, I must come to see his face one last time,” Fridah Shezi-Chabalala, 73, who woke up at 4 a.m., said as she waited with her granddaughter Tumi. “A man like him we will not see again, a man who went to jail for 27 years for white and black.” ‘Say Goodbye’ About 40,000 people viewed Mandela’s open coffin over the past two days, according to government estimates. Mandela’s head and shoulders are visible behind a glass covering. Military personnel, heads bowed and dressed in white, guard the coffin as mourners walk by. “As long as I can say goodbye to Madiba, the last farewell,” Caroline Baloyi, 78, said as she wiped away tears. “I’m not well, but I said today is the last day and I’ll never see him again. We are sad, but it was his time. He is at peace.” Mandla Mandela, the former president’s grandson, sat with the coffin following a tradition that the deceased isn’t left alone until burial, according to General Themba Templeton Matanzima, the family’s spokesman. Female police officers lined the path as people exited the covered area where Mandela’s body lies in state, offering tissues and consoling mourners. A nine-meter (30-foot) statue of Mandela was being prepared for its unveiling on Dec. 16. The statue, which has its arms outstretched, is located in the gardens leading up to the Union Buildings. The face and the arms of the bronze statue remained covered today. “It feels like an end of an era,” Estelle Williams, 52, said in an interview at the Union Buildings, accompanied by her sister, Lorraine, who had traveled from Cape Town. “It’s very emotional. You remember everyone who died next to you during the struggle. You suppress so much and all of that is resurfaced now.”

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