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Grief pours out online for Mandela

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 06 Dec 2013
Tributes for former president Nelson Mandela are flooding in via social media.
Tributes for former president Nelson Mandela are flooding in via social media.

News of Nelson Mandela's passing dominated social media this morning, already trending on Twitter before 7am and filling Facebook wall posts.

Among those who posted messages of condolences on the mini messaging site Twitter was the Dalai Lama, Bill Clinton and US president Barack Obama's official account. @NelsonMandela tweeted that it had posted a tribute to SA's former president on Facebook.

The global top trending twitter tweet this morning is #RIPNelsonMandela, which is also at the top of the list of local trending topics. The other trending terms in SA include South Africa, ANC, Tata, Hero, Houghton and #legend.

President Jabob Zuma, addressing the nation late last night, said Mandela "passed on peacefully in the company of his family" at about 8:50pm. "He is now resting. He is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," he said.

Zuma added: "Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world.

"His humility, his compassion, and his humanity earned him their love. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mandela family. To them we owe a debt of gratitude. They have sacrificed much and endured much so that our people could be free."

In tribute, the state has created a dedicated Web site where all announcements and information will be uploaded. MultiChoice is honouring his memory through a special channel on 199 on DStv, while several DStv channels will be running tributes.

Long illness

Mandela had been ill for some time and had spent months in hospital, under the care of a multidisciplinary panel of South African medical experts. He was treated for a reoccurring lung infection before finally going home.

On 5 July, reports emerged that he was in a vegetative state and his family had been advised to turn off life-support machines.

The Presidency moved quickly to deny the reports: "We confirm our earlier statement released this afternoon after president Jacob Zuma visited Madiba in hospital that Madiba remains in a critical, but stable, condition. The doctors deny that the former president is in a vegetative state."

According to the Presidency, Mandela's team included staff members from the South Africa Military Health Services, the public sector, universities and the private sector.

Pioneer president

Mandela was SA's first democratically elected president between 1994 and 1999, and served as African National Congress (ANC) president between 1991 and 1997. He was instrumental in a number of protest actions and campaigns against white-dominated rule and apartheid laws, including the anti-pass law campaigns. He addressed international audiences and travelled widely to gain support for the struggle against apartheid, and to canvass support for Umkhonto weSizwe.

"We appreciate all the love and compassion. Madiba is receiving the best medical care from a multi-disciplinary team of health professionals, who are at his bedside around the clock," said Zuma during his illness.

At one stage during his hospitalisation, interest was so high that the Presidency's Web site fell over for a short while. It was up and running soon again, but only with the statement as a placeholder.

Long walk

According to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Mandela - affectionately called Madiba after his clan name, or Tata - was born as Rolihlahla Mandela on 18 July 1918 to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.

Mandela's father died when he was a child and he became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom to give all black schoolchildren 'Christian' names.

A first attempt at a degree, a BA at the University College of Fort Hare, was unsuccessful after he was expelled for joining a student protest. He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

In 1941, Mandela and his cousin ran away to Johannesburg to escape an arranged marriage and he worked as a mine security officer, before meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, who introduced him to Lazar Sidelsky. He then did his articles through the firm of attorneys Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky.

Meanwhile, he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand, but was a "poor" student and left the university in 1948 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London and also did not complete that degree, finally finishing his LLB through the University of South Africa in the last few months of his imprisonment.

However, a two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Mandela to practice law, and in August 1952, he and Oliver Tambo established SA's first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo.

Political career

In 1944, he joined the ANC and helped form its Youth League and, in the same year, married Sisulu's cousin, Evelyn Mase, a nurse, with whom he had two sons and two daughters, the first of whom died in infancy. Mase and Madiba divorced in 1958.

In 1952, Mandela was chosen as the national volunteer-in-chief of the civil disobedience Defiance Campaign and, along with 19 others, ended up being charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months' hard labour, which was suspended for two years.

At the end of 1952, he was banned for the first time, while the banning of the ANC followed in 1960, after a state of emergency was declared following the Sharpeville protests against the pass laws, during which 69 unarmed people were killed.

Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop of 156 activists on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial, and he was acquitted in 1961. During the trial, he married Winnie Madikizela, who was then a social worker, and they had two daughters before divorcing in 1996.

In June 1961, he was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation) and the following January, using the alias David Motsamayi, he left SA secretly, travelling around Africa and England to gain support for the armed struggle.

After military training in Morocco and Ethiopia, Mandela returned to SA in July 1962 and was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal where he briefed then ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.

Imprisonment

Mandela joined nine others on trial for sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial in October 1963 and faced the death penalty. He addressed the court in his famous 'speech from the dock' in April 1964 and said: "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

On 11 June 1964, Mandela and seven other accused were convicted and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to Robben Island. In 1985, he had prostrate surgery, and in 1988, was treated for tuberculosis and was transferred to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl.

Mandela was released on 11 February 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the Pan African Congress, and nearly four months after the release of the remaining Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment, he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.

In 1991, while in official talks to end white minority rule, he was elected ANC president to replace his ailing friend, Oliver Tambo, and, two years later, was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with then president FW de Klerk.

After the first democratic elections, in 1994, at which he voted for the first time in his life, he was inaugurated SA's first democratically elected president, stepping down after one term. On his 80th birthday, in 1998, he married Graca Machel, his third wife.

Timeline

18 July 1918

Born Rolihlahla Mandela at Mvezo, in the Transkei.

1941

Escapes an arranged marriage; becomes a mine night watchman; starts articles at law firm Witkin, Sidelsky & Eidelman.

1951

Elected president of the ANCYL.

1952

Defiance Campaign begins: arrested and charged for violating the Suppression of Communism Act; elected Transvaal ANC president; convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act and sentenced to nine months' hard labour, suspended for two years; elected ANC deputy president and opens SA's first black law firm with Oliver Tambo.

1956

Arrested and joins 155 others on trial for treason. All are acquitted by 29 March 1961.

1958

Divorces Evelyn Mase; marries Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela - they have two daughters: Zenani (1959) and Zindzi (1960).

March 1960

A state of emergency imposed and he is among thousands detained.

April 1960

The ANC is banned.

1961

Goes underground; Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) is formed.

January 1962

Leaves the country for military training and to garner support for the ANC.

August 1962

Arrested near Howick in KwaZulu-Natal.

9 October 1963

Appears in court for the first time in what becomes known as the Rivonia Trial.

11 June 1964

Found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars.

1990

The ANC is unbanned; Mandela is released and elected ANC deputy president.

1993

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with FW de Klerk.

1994

Votes for the first time in his life and becomes SA's first democratically elected president.

1996

Divorces Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

1998

Marries Graca Machel on his 80th birthday.

1999

Steps down after one term as president.

2004

Steps down from public life.

2012

Admitted to hospital between 8 and 26 December.

2013

Admitted to hospital on 9 and 10 March, and again on 8 June before being released in September.

5 December 2013

Dies at home.

Source: Nelson Mandela Foundation.

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