Mourners make long queue to see Mandela’s body

The body of the former South African President Nelsen Mandela, dubbed “Giant of History,” has been made public on Wednesday. The look of the late Mandela was an image of a statesman sleeping in peace as if seeking to convey to humanity a message of forgiveness and reconciliation through his last moment.

People seeking to pay their final respects to the anti-Apartheid icon, who is laid in glass casket, made a long queue extending several kilometers from early in the morning on the day at the Union Building, one of the general government buildings in the South African capital of Pretoria. After Mandela’s bereaved family and foreign delegations finished paying their respects from 10 a.m. Wednesday, South Africans started to bid farewell to Madiba in succession from noon.

The South African government will make public Mandela’s body for nine hours each for three days from Wednesday. Soon after the end of condolence sessions, the body is transported back to a military hospital every day. Hence, tens of thousands of South Africans are expected to take to the street en masse to view his hoarse heading to the Union Building from the hospital right before 9 a.m. each day.

At the memorial service on Tuesday, South African President Jacob Zuma said,” The government will rename the Union Building housing the government building ‘the Nelson Mandela Hall.’” He said, “We will change the name because it was the former President Mandela who changed the Union building from the symbol of racial discrimination and oppression to a building symbolizing peace and reconciliation, democracy and progress.”

Mandela’s body, covered with the South African flag, will be carried to his hometown of Qunu on Saturday. The ruling African National Congress will hold a memorial service at the Air Force base where the flight carrying his body will depart. More than 5,000 people, including his family and relatives, and senior government officials, will likely attend his funeral that will take place in Qunu on Sunday.