Prayers for Mandela on Grand Parade

The sound of prayers reverberated through Cape Town's Grand Parade shortly before sunset on Friday.

 

Thousands had flocked to the public square to hear the prayers offered by religious leaders from a podium erected just below the City Hall balcony where Mandela made his first speech as a free man on February 11, 1990.

 

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille introduced the religious leaders, and quoted from Mandela's balcony speech, which she termed "the birth of a new age".

 

Mandela had said: "Perhaps it was history that ordained that it be here, at the Cape of Good Hope, that we should lay the foundation stone of our new nation... For it was here at this Cape, over three centuries ago, that there began the fateful convergence of the peoples of Africa, Europe and Asia on these shores."

 

Silence fell over the parade on Friday when Imam Rashied Omar, chairman of the Western Cape Religious Inter-Faith Forum, sang his prayer.

 

He was followed by the Muslim Judicial Council's Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels, who called on all races and religions across the world to unite and live the ideals the late statesman fought and lived for.

 

"All human beings belong to God Almighty, and all of us will return unto him," Gabriels told mourners.

 

While the country was in a state of mourning, it was also a time to celebrate the life and legacy Mandela had left behind.

 

"God Almighty, we ask you that we the children of Africa and the children of the world inherit the sterling qualities and excellent character of President Nelson Mandela," Gabriels prayed.

 

"We ask God that we inherit his quality of patience, perseverance and bravery."

 

Several people raised their arms in a black power salute to Mandela.

 

Paying his respects to Mandela's relatives, Gabriels said: "Dear family of Mandela and the ANC, this is indeed a time of sadness, but you can be proud to carry the Mandela name -- a name that will be forever be engraved in the hearts of all of humanity."

 

Members of the Jewish community also came out in their numbers shortly before women and girls around the world lit the Shabbat candles, which usher in the Sabbath.

 

"Our father, our king, the leader of heaven and earth, 95 years ago you planted a seed of light into our world -- a light of peace and reconciliation... a light of compassion and humility," Western Cape Rabbinical Association chairman Rabbi Asher Deren said in his prayer.

 

"Today that light has dimmed." 

 

Deren called on people to view Mandela's death as a sign to start walking in his footsteps.

 

"Have mercy upon him, for the righteousness he has done...Remember him for his heroic and selfless leadership of South Africa and guiding our country to freedom and democracy."

 

Reverend Joy-Faith Kronenberg, senior vice president of the SA Council of Churches, said Cape Town and Mandela had a special connection.

 

Mandela spent his 27-year jail term in various prisons, most notably Robben Island, in Cape Town.

 

"When we embrace Madiba's legacy, let us move forward in that spirit of reconciliation so that one day when it is our turn to leave this Earth, we can truly say we have fought for a non-racial system," Kronenberg said.

 

Top city officials were joined by Western Cape premier Helen Zille, African National Congress provincial chairman Marius Fransman and Human settlements Deputy Minister Zoe Kota.

 

In a rare display of affection, Kota embraced Zille before she took her seat.

 

Bouquets of flowers and personal messages scribbled on pieces of paper from people across the Cape were left near the City Hall steps.

 

Many in the crowd said they were too emotional to eloquently express their thoughts about Mandela.

 

Christopher Phanyaza, a chauffeur for the US embassy, recalled leading a motorcade of US delegates to Mandela's home in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, where his funeral will be held on December 15.

 

"When we got his porch, I was kneeling and greeting him as a way of giving respect to an old man and in the process my sunglasses fell from my head. 

 

He [Madiba] went for my glasses and picked them up and gave them to me," Phanyaza said.

 

It was a small gesture, but showed Phanyaza how humble Mandela was.

 

"My eyes just welled with tears because I never thought in my wildest dreams that a man of that stature can pick up my glasses... that's how down to earth the man was."

 

Selam Mehari, a Londoner who arrived in Cape Town on Friday morning, said she was saddened, as Mandela had "touched souls all over the world".

 

"How I identify with Madiba is [because of] his patience and humbleness and innate lack of bitterness towards life and what he'd been through. 

 

It just puts it into perspective for the rest of us," Mehari said.

 

-Sapa