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World leaders, friend and foe coming together for Nelson Mandela
On Sunday, worshipers filled churches, mosques, synagogues and community halls, offering praise and prayers for a man celebrated as “Father of the Nation” and a global beacon of integrity, rectitude and reconciliation.
Tributes have flowed in from around the world and across political and religious divides.
Besides Obama, three former U.S. presidents – Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – will also be in Johannesburg, and top hotels are struggling to deal with the avalanche of high-profile celebrity Mandela mourners.
“We are fully booked,” said an employee of the 5-star Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa, which has 54 luxury rooms set in lush gardens.
“We have even had to convert some treatment rooms to cope.”
After Tuesday’s event, Mandela’s remains will lie in state for three days at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where he was sworn in as president in 1994.
He will then be buried on December 15 in Qunu, his ancestral home in the rolling, windswept hills of the Eastern Cape province, 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg.
