Mandela attends funeral of great granddaughter

A SOMBRE and frail Nelson Mandela attended the funeral for his 13-year-old great-granddaughter yesterday, after she was killed in a car crash following the World Cup’s opening concert.

The 91-year-old anti-apartheid icon emerged stiffly from a car and leaned on a walking stick.

He was ferried in a golf cart to the brick chapel of the Johannesburg private school Zenani Mandela had attended and took a front pew.

Zenani was a member of the choir, marimba club and drum corps of St Stithians College, where her funeral was held, and wanted to be a plastic surgeon.

After her death, Mandela decided not to make a rare public appearance at the tournament’s opening ceremony and first game, as had been planned.

A private burial was held earlier yesterday, and the public were welcomed to the chapel service, with several hundred people attending, including an overflow crowd in a tent outside.

Mandela’s wife, Grace Machel, accompanied him.

Also present was his ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Zenani’s great-grandmother.

The teenager’s classmates in school blazers and other mourners each held a single white rose. They stood to sing Amazing Grace as the funeral began before a montage of family portraits, including one of Zenani hugging her famous great-grandfather, was projected on a screen as a recording of Lean On Me played.

Police say a close family friend who was driving the car that crashed on a highway on June 10 could be charged with drink-driving and homicide.

Meanwhile, the wider mood in South Africa was also sombre after the country’s World Cup team lost 3-0 to Uruguay last night.

If South Africa fail to beat France, they will become the first host nation in the 80-year history of the competition to go out in the first round.