Last updated 3:00 PM ET
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president and anti-apartheid leader, died at home after battling illness. The legendary leader was revered worldwide for overcoming a 27-year prison sentence before emerging to lead a peaceful end to systemic racism in his country.
INTERACTIVE: The Mandela family tree](http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/map-mandela-tree/)
South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, “the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” adding that he “passed on peacefully.”
“Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” Zuma said.
"Our thoughts are with the millions of people who embraced Mandela as their own and who saw his cause as their cause.… This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.”
Mandela will be accorded a state funeral, Zuma said, and national flags will be lowered to half-mast.
“We saw in him what we seek in ourselves. And in him we saw so much of ourselves,” he said. “Nelson Mandela brought us together and it is together that we will bid him farewell.”
Glad he’s dead.
Couldn’t happen to a better communist.
Good riddance!
More innocent people died because of that scum bag than needed to be.
There isn’t a place in my heart for the bastard.
Nope!
You guys just ain’t got the ball to say it!
Larz , you are acting like an idiot with that statement. “I fought against White domination, I fought against Black domination” all while using the word harmonious in his words. Look it up. You seem to forget how we kicked the British out of here and had a little Tea party in Boston as a little sign of freedom. What is the difference. Does that make us communists?
He won a Nobel Prize. The world must have thought highly of him. His people surely did. I do. Anyone who can have 27 yrs of their life stolen from them and gut it out for the good of peace and harmony? That isn’t a communist. He was a good man. Certainly not a racist.
Just because you say it is a fact, doesn’t make it one. Believe what you want. The opening statement was racist and unfortunate at best…I struggle with that level of ignorance in today’s world. I do have the ball to say that. Your part of it is as meaningless as your point.