Goodbye Madiba !

South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on Thursday after a prolonged lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man hailed by global leaders as a moral giant.
Although Mandela had been frail and ailing for nearly a year, Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate shook South Africa.
Tributes began flooding in almost immediately for a man who was an iconic global symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the world had lost “one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth”.
Ordinary South Africans were in shock.
A sombre Zuma made a national broadcast to announce the death of South Africa's first black president.
“Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” Zuma said in the nationally televised address.
“Our people have lost a father. Although we knew this day was going to come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world. His humility, passion and humanity, earned him their love,” he added.
Mandela would receive a full state funeral, Zuma said, ordering flags to be flown at half mast.
The U.N. Security Council was in session when the ambassadors received the news of Mandela's death. They stopped their meeting and stood for a minute's silence.
“Nelson Mandela was a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters. “Nelson Mandela showed what is possible for our world and within each one of us if we believe, dream and work together for justice and humanity.”
Obama, the first black American president, described Mandela as an inspiration: “Like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him,” he said in a televised address at the White House shortly after the announcement of Mandela's death.
“A free South Africa at peace with itself - that's an example to the world, and that's Madiba's legacy to the nation he loved.”
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority apartheid government - 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 and retired in 1999.
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said the country and the world had lost “a colossus”.“His life gives us the courage to push forward for development and progress towards ending hunger and poverty,” it said in a statement.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honour he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who released from jail arguably the world's most famous political prisoner.
The hallmark of Mandela’s mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which probed apartheid crimes on both sides of the struggle and tried to heal the country's wounds. It also provided a model for other countries torn by civil strife.
In retirement, he 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, where he received a thunderous ovation from the 90,000 at the stadium in Soweto.
Charged with capital offences in the infamous 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony. “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paid rich tributes to Nelson Mandela, describing him as a "giant among men" who was a beacon of hope for those struggling against oppression and injustice.
Condoling the demise of the great leader who devoted his life to fight against apartheid, Singh said his passing away is as much a loss to India and the world as it is to South Africa.
"I am deeply saddened at the passing away of President Nelson Mandela," he said in his condolence message.
Quoting an unknown poet, Singh said, "Here and there, and now and then, God makes a giant among men. President Mandela was one such giant amongst men."
The Prime Minister noted that Mandela not only represented the conscience of the world, he also remained a beacon of hope for those struggling against oppression and injustice long after he had led his own people to victory over such ills.
"Nelson Mandela endured great personal hardship so that others could be provided with dignity, equality and opportunity. He fought discrimination and inhuman exclusion, but rose above bitter divisions to heal and reconcile a fractured nation. His life and work made him a citizen of the world," he said.
"India, in particular, had great affection and regard for him. His mission was a great inspiration and moral bulwark for our principled struggle against apartheid. It also mirrored our own hope for a better world and we were greatly honoured when he accepted the highest Indian civilian award of Bharat Ratna," the Prime Minister said.
He said today, India joins South Africa and the world in mourning his loss. "But we know that his life and ideals will inspire generations to come. May God bless his soul," Singh said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also paid tributes to Nelson Mandela saying the anti-apartheid icon redefined the meaning of courage, sacrifice and forgiveness and his death is like losing "a beloved father."
"Today, I join millions of Indians in mourning his loss. We feel bereft, as we have lost a beloved father. We will be forever grateful that such a one as he walked this Earth of ours," she said.
The Congress president said like Mahatma Gandhi, who was his inspiration, Mandela was a leader who belonged to all humanity, "a towering beacon for all who cherish freedom, democracy and social justice."
Paying tributes to Mandela in the Lok Sabha, she said through the long years of his struggle for South Africa's freedom from oppression, racial prejudice, inequality and poverty, he "redefined the meaning of courage, sacrifice, and forgiveness."
"Over the 10,000 days he spent in a brutal prison, sacrificing 27 years of his life for the freedom of his people, his courage never wavered, nor did his conviction that his cause was just and true," Gandhi said, adding, that with his passing away the world is deprived of a luminous presence and a radiant spirit.
Noting that Madiba was a beloved figure in India, Gandhi said "we felt deeply honored that after his release from prison, India was one of the first countries he visited, in 1990. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest honor that India can bestow, because we loved and revered him..."
Besides, Mandela always led from the front but like a true leader, he had the gift of taking others along with him. His own courage was almost superhuman, yet he had the gift of inspiring others to acts of extraordinary heroism, she added.