Tsvangirai attends Mandela send-off

HARARE – Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday joined over 4 500 guests at Nelson Mandela’s ancestral home of Qunu for the a final farewell to the man who united South Africa when it teetered on the edge of bloody conflict.

Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress and one of the masters of ceremonies, introduced Tsvangirai as “His Excellency, the former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.”

President Robert Mugabe, who attended Tuesday’s memorial service at the FNB Stadium in Soweto where he received a standing ovation, did not attend the burial yesterday ostensibly because he was wrapping up his party’s 14th annual conference in Chinhoyi, about 100km west of the capital, Harare.

Tsvangirai yesterday took to social media.

“In Qunu sending off a great son of Africa,” Tsvangirai posted on his Facebook page. His spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka told the Daily News: “Its better to be in Qunu than in Chinhoyi.”

Mandela, who died in Johannesburg on December 5, was imprisoned for 27 years for opposing apartheid and emerged to forge a new democratic South Africa by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation.

On Monday, Tsvangirai signed a book of condolences for Mandela in Harare at the residence of South African ambassador. In his condolence message, Tsvangirai said Mandela had exceptional qualities.

“We in the MDC feel a great void and were are greatly aggrieved at the sad and tragic loss of this icon,” he said. “I met him once and we had a frank exchange on the situation in Zimbabwe.

“He told me that the country had taken a wrong turn and that President Mugabe had led the nation to the brink of political and economic turmoil and that he would personally do all he could to persuade the Zimbabwean leadership to see sense.”

Vusi Mavimbela, South Africa’s envoy to Zimbabwe, told memorial of the liberation icon in Harare that Mandela has become the subject of global scrutiny by the world, a world that is in search of an assuring and elevated human enterprise.

“This is the world that is facing huge challenges in upholding democracy and good governance, a world infected by greed and corruption, a world torn apart by terrorism and civil wars and a world populated by millions of refugees and decimated by famine and a world that is hamstrung by the paucity and mediocrity of leadership”, Mavimbela said.

“It is equally true that the world is also searching for human weaknesses that made Mandela a human being. Mandela is the first to admit that he was neither a saint nor a demi-god. He would be the first one to admit that he committed his mistakes like all of us.

“As Mandela would proclaim, he hopes that his mistakes would be a lesson to others so that from those lessons humanity can come out wiser.” Daily News