South African icon and former President Nelson Mandela is dead. He died Thursday night peacefully at his home.
Speaking on his death, president Zuma said: “This is the moment out deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest so”
Nelson Mandela, born on July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, was a South African politician. He died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95.
Tributes have started pouring in from across the world.
Madiba, as he was affectionately called, was elected the country’s
first black president in 1994, after decades of white minority rule.
The 95-year-old Mandela was hospitalized last week due to a recurring lung infection.
Mandela is revered as the father of modern South Africa. He came of
age during the era of apartheid, or institutionalized racial
segregation. After years of underground activism on behalf of the
African National Congress, which was outlawed until 1990, Mandela was
imprisoned for 27 years.
Mandela was elected president in 1994, marking the de facto end of
apartheid. During his five-year tenure, he made it his mission to
promote equality and progress for all South Africans, emphasizing his
belief that white and black citizens had to work together to heal old
wounds.
The ANC has dominated the national government since 1994, and
economic growth has made South Africa the largest economy on the
continent. But the country still suffers from deep divisions and a
yawning wealth gap; Zuma and other ANC leaders have been accused of
fostering endemic corruption.
Mandela had been largely absent from this drama. Having contracted
tuberculosis during his years in prison, Mandela suffered frequent lung
infections. He had been absent from public appearance since 2010.
Despite all of this, Mandela’s reputation remained untarnished.
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