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Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela passes away
At 95 years of age, the man who fought for freedom in South Africa Nelson Mandela has died.
5 December 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
1 min read
The world mourns Nelson Mandela, who passed away on Thursday night aged 95.
Despite having battled health problems for months, the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela has come as a shock.
Although there are no details as yet on his death, the 95-year-old anti-apartheid icon battled health issues including a recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalisation. However, his body had started to reject antibiotics. Mandela retreated to a quiet life at the home he grew up in at the Eastern Cape Province.
The Office of the Prime Minister lowered the flag to half-mast in remembrance of Nelson Mandela
Mandela was described as the "moral giant" of the 20th and 21st centuries while keeping the country together when it could have easily turned to a civil war.
His defiance of white minority rule and incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world's attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South African government until 1994.
In his lifetime, he was a man of complexities. He went from a militant freedom fighter, to a prisoner, to a unifying figure, to an elder statesman.
Mandela's death was announced by South African President Jacob Zuma.
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Nelson Mandela exemplary life of values of self-sacrifice, forgiveness and reconciliation and compassion contrasts with the cynicism, power, greed and money driven world that we continue to live in.
A special hallmark of Mandela legacy and an example for people in power position to follow, especially in Africa, is that, after almost three decades fighting oppression and injustice, where others would be tempted to seek open or disguised revenge and remain in power as long as possible, Nelson Mandela was able to voluntarily relinquish and leave power after just one term as president of his country.
His life is a testimony of what an individual can achieve when acting without bitter anger and revenge that are among negative forces that prevent us from achieving better and more.
As the emotion brought about his death settles in, the ills of oppression, injustice and discrimination that Mandela successfully fought persist in different and complex forms throughout the world: he leaves a moral vacuum and a hard act to follow.
