South Africa is preparing for the arrival of a flood of world leaders for the funeral and memorial services for Nelson Mandela as thousands of mourners continued to flock to sites around the country to pay homage to the anti-apartheid icon.
Among those who have already indicated that they will be travelling to South Africa to honour Mandela, who died at his Johannesburg home at the age of 95 on Thursday night, are US President Barack Obama and his two predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff will also be among the guests.
A week of mourning, with several events planned, has been declared by the government. Sunday has been declared a national day of prayer and reflection, while a national memorial service is scheduled to be held at a Johannesburg stadium where Mandela made his last public appearance for the closing ceremony of the 2010 soccer World Cup.
Official memorial services will also be held in all of South Africa’s provinces and regions over the next week. Mandela’s body will lie in state from Wednesday till Friday at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the capital.
Nelson Mandela's funeral cortege will travel through the streets of Pretoria on three consecutive days, the South African government said, encouraging people to line the route.
"Every morning, when the remains leave the mortuary to the lying in state, those routes will be made public," said government spokesman Neo Momodu.
The state funeral and burial for the Nobel peace prize laureate will be held in his rural hometown of Qunu in the Eastern Cape Province on Sunday Dec. 15.
The state airline, South African Airways, has laid on special charter flights to ferry invited dignitaries to the funeral.
The government has announced that a special sitting of the two houses of parliament - the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces - will be held on Monday to pay tribute to Mandela, the country’s first black and democratically-elected president.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)
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