Prayers for Madiba cancelled

Mandela family asks religious body not to hold vigil

THE South African Hindu Maha Sabha (SAHMS) pulled out of a prayer meeting to be held on Friday afternoon for ailing former president Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria out of respect for the Mandela family.

This comes after the family asked the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) to cancel a prayer vigil scheduled to take place in Durban last week.

On Friday, a SAHMS official, Kribbs Naidu, said the organisation had called on the organiser of the event, the director of Ganesha Communications, Naufal Khan, to cancel the prayer.

“We want to respect the [Mandela] family’s request. I think it would be wise if we could refrain from holding this prayer. Iskcon was asked to cancel their prayer vigil and we don’t want to stress the family any further,” said Naidu.

Iskcon said: “In light of recent conversations with the Mandela family liaison, it has been advised that we all focus on his 95th birthday celebration on July 18.

“In order to uphold the desires of the Mandela family, we have decided to cancel the prayer vigil on Thursday.”

President Jacob Zuma has repeatedly asked South Africans to pray for Madiba’s health. This week there were several prayer meetings including Pretoria and Soweto.

However, Khan went ahead with the prayer because, he said, there was no harm intended in it.

“Other religious groups have held prayers for Mandela. There is nothing sinister in our effort to hold this prayer — we have nothing but Mandela’s best interests at heart,” said Khan.

He said about 100 people showed up outside the hospital to join together in prayer. He said they recited a few mantras (prayers) for Mandela to recover and prayed for him to return home soon.

Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, was not available for comment. The Nelson Mandela Foundation did not respond to e-mails and phone calls on the matter.