US President Barack Obama yesterday said that Nelson Mandela was a “hero for the world” whose legacy will live on throughout the ages, as the anti-apartheid hero lay critically ill in hospital.
“He is a personal hero. I think he is a hero for the world, and if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages,” Obama said in Senegal.
Mandela was on life support in a Pretoria hospital yesterday and his condition was casting doubt over Obama’s visit to South Africa, due to begin today.
But Obama, who said Mandela had inspired him to become involved in politics, said he still planned to travel to South Africa, and said the prayers of the American people were with the South African ex-president’s family.
Obama, using Mandela’s clan name “Madiba”, said Mandela had given him a “sense of what is possible in the world, when righteous people of goodwill work together”.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon said the whole world was praying for “one of the giants of the 20th century”.
Ban called Mandela “one of the giants of the 20th century” at a New York reception for the 50th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity which played a leading international role in fighting apartheid in South Africa.
“I know our thoughts and prayers are with Nelson Mandela, his family and loved ones, all South Africans and people across the world who have been inspired by his remarkable life and example,” Ban said.
In only her fifth ever tweet, Hillary Clinton offered “love and prayers to our great friend, Madiba, his family and his nation during this difficult time.”
Mandela — whose 95th birthday is on July 18 — has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for a stubborn lung infection dating back to his time in jail for sabotage against the apartheid government.
The man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain walked free from prison near Cape Town in 1990.
He went on to negotiate an end to white minority rule and won South Africa’s first fully democratic elections in 1994.
He forged a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner.
He stepped back from public life in 2004 and has not been seen in public since the football World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.
Source: The Daily Star
