Бывший президент ЮАР и лауреат Нобелевской премии мира Нельсон Мандела скончался. Об этом в ночь на пятницу, 6 декабря, объявил нынешний президент государства Джейкоб Зума, передаёт агентство Reuters.
95-летний Мандела умер у себя дома в Йоханнесбурге после продолжительной болезни. Правозащитник и бывший президент страдал лёгочной инфекцией.
Как сообщил Зума, Манделу похоронят с государственными почестями. Президент ЮАР распорядился приспустить флаги в знак памяти о покойном лидере.
Нельсон Мандела родился в 1918 году на юго-востоке ЮАР. В 1943 году он начал изучать право в университете, но степень бакалавра права получил лишь в 1989 году, в последние месяцы своего заключения, заочно обучаясь в Университете Южной Африки.
Мандела вступил в Молодёжную лигу Африканского национального конгресса (АНК), который занимался борьбой с апартеидом, в 1944 году. В 1953 году правительство ЮАР запретило ему выступать на публичных мероприятиях. В 1956 году его обвинили в государственной измене, но затем оправдали.
К 1960 году, когда власти запретили АНК, Мандела уже стал признанным лидером организации. В 1961 году он возглавил военную организацию АНК, а через три года был арестован и приговорён к пожизненному заключению. В 1985 году Мандела отверг предложение президента ЮАР Питера Боты об освобождении в обмен на отказ от политической борьбы. Пять лет спустя его освободили.
В 1993 году Мандела и президент ЮАР Фредерик де Клерк были удостоены Нобелевской премии мира за их усилия по искоренению апартеида. На первых общенациональных выборах в ЮАР с участием африканского большинства в 1994 году Манделу избрали первым чернокожим президентом ЮАР. Он оставался во главе государства до 1999 года.
Летом 2013 года Мандела был госпитализирован с лёгочной инфекцией. Вскоре его состояние резко ухудшилось, и его подключили к аппарату искусственной вентиляции лёгких. В сентябре бывшего президента выписали и отправили на лечение домой, где были созданы все необходимые условия. В течение осени сообщалось, что Мандела находится в стабильно критическом состоянии.
Солистка Boney M. Лиз Митчелл (Liz Mitchell) на рубеже 80-х-90-х сделала специальную запись в честь первого чернокожего лидера ЮАР под названием "Mandela". Музыкальной основой послужил хит Boney M. 1979 года "El Lute", который о многом перекликался с темой освобождения Нельсона Манделы и его гражданского подвига.
Летом 1993 года, во время гастролей Boney M.feat.Liz Mitchell в Москве, нашей съёмочной группой была сделана видеозапись композиции "Mandela", которую мы предлагаем сегодня вашему вниманию.
South Africans, some fearful, wake to life without Mandela
(Reuters) - South Africans woke on Friday to a future without Nelson Mandela, and some said they feared the anti-apartheid hero's death could leave their country vulnerable again to racial and social tensions that he did so much to pacify.
As dawn broke and commuters headed to work in the capital, Pretoria, the commercial hub, Johannesburg, and Cape Town in the south, many were still in shock at the passing of a man who was a global symbol of reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.
South Africans heard President Jacob Zuma tell them late on Thursday that the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate passed away peacefully at his Johannesburg home in the company of his family after a long illness.
Despite reassurances from leaders and public figures that Mandela's passing, while sorrowful, would not halt South Africa's advance away from its bitter apartheid past, some still expressed a sense of unease about the physical absence of a man famed as a peacemaker.
"It's not going to be good, hey! I think it's going to become a more racist country. People will turn on each other and chase foreigners away," said Sharon Qubeka, 28, a secretary from Tembisa township as she headed to work in Johannesburg.
"Mandela was the only one who kept things together," she said.
An avalanche of tributes continued to pour in on Friday for Mandela, who had been ailing for nearly a year with a recurring lung illness dating back to the 27 years he spent in apartheid jails, including the notorious Robben Island penal colony.
U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were among world leaders and dignitaries who paid fulsome tribute to Mandela as a moral giant and exemplary beacon for the world.
American talk show host Oprah Winfrey added her voice to the tributes, saying Mandela "will always be my hero".
"His life was a gift to us all," she said in a statement.
But for South Africa, the loss of its most beloved leader comes at a time when the nation, which basked in global goodwill after apartheid ended, has been experiencing bloody labor unrest, growing protests against poor services, poverty, crime and unemployment and corruption scandals tainting Zuma's rule.
Many saw today's South Africa - the African continent's biggest economy but also one of the world's most unequal - still distant from being the "Rainbow Nation" ideal of social peace and shared prosperity that Mandela had proclaimed on his triumphant release from prison in 1990.
"I feel like I lost my father, someone who would look out for me. Already as a black person with no connections you are disadvantaged," said Joseph Nkosi, 36, a security guard from Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
Referring to Mandela by his clan name, he added: "Now without Madiba I feel like I don't have a chance. The rich will get richer and simply forget about us. The poor don't matter to them. Look at our politicians, they are nothing like Madiba."
Flags flew at half mast across the country and Zuma has announced a full state funeral for South Africa's first black president, who emerged from prison to help guide the country through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy.
'LIFE WILL CARRY ON'
Just hours after the news of Mandela's death, one of his veteran anti-apartheid comrades, former Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, sought to assuage fears that the revered statesman's absence could revive some of the violent ghosts of apartheid.
"To suggest that South Africa might go up in flames - as some have predicted - is to discredit South Africans and Madiba's legacy," Tutu said in a reassuring statement.
"The sun will rise tomorrow, and the next day and the next ... It may not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on," Tutu said.
Zuma and his ruling African National Congress face presidential and legislative elections next year which are expected to reveal widespread discontent among voters about persisting poverty and unemployment two decades after the end of apartheid.
But the former liberation movement is expected to maintain its dominance over South African politics, despite the absence of one of its most towering figures.
"It is painful losing him but the ANC is going to stay strong and be dominant. The party is powerful and will stay in power," said office worker Tumi Matshidiso, 27.
Mark Rosenberg, Senior Africa Analyst at the Eurasia Group, said that while Mandela's death might give the ANC a sympathy-driven boost for elections due next year, it would hurt the party in the long term.
He saw Mandela's absence "sapping the party's historical legitimacy and encouraging rejection by voters who believe the ANC has failed to deliver on its economic promises and become mired in corruption."
"In short, Mandela's death will further de-couple the ANC from the liberation struggle on which it still bases much of its legitimacy," Rosenberg said in a briefing note.
Although Zuma's initial announcement of Zuma's death left the country hushed, later a crowd gathered overnight outside Mandela's old house in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, to sing songs in his praise.
"Mandela you brought us peace" was one of the songs.
DEMOCRATIC MODEL FOR AFRICA
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority rule - a struggle that gave the 20th century one of its most respected and loved figures.
He was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960 but was quick to preach reconciliation and forgiveness when the country's white minority began easing its grip on power 30 years later.
He was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994 after helping to steer the racially divided country towards reconciliation and away from civil war.
"His greatest legacy is that we are basically at peace with each other," F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner president who released Mandela in 1990, told the BBC in an interview.
Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honor he shared with de Klerk.
In 1999, Mandela handed over power to younger leaders better equipped to manage a modern economy - a rare voluntary departure from power cited as an example to African leaders.
This made him an exception on a continent with a bloody history of long-serving autocrats and violent coups.
In retirement, Mandela shifted his energies to battling South Africa's AIDS crisis, a struggle that became personal when he lost his only surviving son to the disease in 2005.
Mandela's last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he attended the championship match of the soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa.
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