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Johannesburg — Well-wishers from all walks of life continued to leave cards and flowers outside Nelson Mandela’s Houghton, Johannesburg, home yesterday. The ailing former president is spending his 26th day at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria where he is being treated for a recurring lung infection.
A group of pupils at a nearby Jewish school, Yeshiva College, gathered outside the home to sing a hymn in Hebrew to wish peace upon the anti-apartheid icon.
The Grade 3 pupils also sang the national anthem, led by their teacher Jenny Braun.
“The excitement was palpable when we told them about this trip. They love and recognise Mandela as a hero and an icon of peace and love,” Braun said.
Busloads of international and local tourists stopped to take pictures of the flowers and rock display of well-wishes left there.
Cards and banners read: “In our hearts and minds; get well soon Madiba”, “Freedom”, “We wish you get better tata”, and “Our thoughts are with you Mandela”.
Further up the road, municipal workers repainting the road’s markings asked journalists if “Madiba was back home”.
A few cars were parked in the street in front of the house and around the corner. Activity outside the Mandela home has quietened down in the past week. There were also fewer journalists.
On Tuesday, ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete called Mandela a figure for all humanity, not only for South Africans.
“We wish he will still come out of that hospital. We still want to continue learning from his example… his humility and his hard work,” she said at an ANC prayer service for the former president.
On Monday, the presidency said his condition remained critical, but stable.
Prayer meetings have been held for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate outside the hospital, at his home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, and in other provinces. — Sapa
Online Reporter