Fellow South Africans,
Our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding President of our democratic nation
has departed.
He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20:50 on the 5th of December 2013.
He is now resting.
He is now at peace.
Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.
Although we knew that this day would 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, his
compassion, and his humanity earned him their love. Our thoughts and prayers are with the
Mandela family.
To them we owe a debt of gratitude.
They have sacrificed much and endured much so that our people could be free.
Our thoughts are with his wife Mrs Graca Machel, his former wife Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
with his children, his grand-children, his great grand-children and the entire family.
Our thoughts are with his friends, comrades and colleagues who fought alongside Madiba
over the course of a lifetime of struggle. Our thoughts are with the South African people
who today mourn the loss of the one person who, more than any other, came to embody their
sense of a common nationhood. Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the
world who embraced Madiba as their own, and who saw his cause as their cause. This is
the moment of our deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Yet, what made
Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.
And in him we saw so much of ourselves. Fellow South Africans,
Nelson Mandela brought us together, and it is together that we will bid him farewell.