Mandela honoured year after his death
President Zuma notably absent following spending scandal
PRETORIA — Nelson Mandela’s widow has paid a moving tribute to her late husband one year after his death at a memorial service from which scandal- hit South African President Jacob Zuma was notably absent.
Graca Machel revealed the revered former South African statesman’s last words to her before he died, in which he told her: “I leave you in peace and I want you to live in peace.”
Machel said she took comfort from imagining comrades in the fight against apartheid, including the African National Congress leaders Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, awaiting in the next life.
“I can imagine him tall and proud, walking, and all of them rising to welcome him, him beaming his contagious smile,” she told the memorial service in Pretoria.
“I know Madiba is in good hands. I know that he is smiling and happy among the family he chose to build.”
Her audience included veterans of the fight against apartheid, senior ANC leaders, Zuma’s first wife Bongi NgemaZuma and Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president. But Zuma was not present, instead flying to China for a state visit to sign a nuclear cooperation deal.
Zuma, who was booed as he spoke at Mandela’s memorial service in Soweto last year, has been largely absent from the public eye for weeks and has failed to appear before parliament.
The last time he did so, he was greeted by opposition MPs chanting “pay back the money” — a reference to the approximately $ 20 million US spent on “security upgrades” to his private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, that included a swimming pool and amphitheatre.
Zuma has ignored a ruling by the public watchdog to refund the public purse.