Mandela grief evident at son's memorial service

A grief-stricken former President Nelson Mandela attended a memorial service today for his son Makgatho, whose death of Aids complications last week underscored the silence still shrouding a disease that kills more than 600 a day in South Africa.

The family refused to disclose the nature of his illness when he went into intensive care at a Johannesburg hospital late last year.

But, within hours of his death, Nelson Mandela, a leading international Aids campaigner, summoned the media to his home to disclose that his last surviving son had been infected with HIV and to appeal for more openness about the virus ravaging Africa.

The anti-apartheid icon appeared gaunt and visibly frail at the service at Johannesburg’s Central Methodist Church.

He did not speak during the proceedings, but a nephew, Lungi Sisulu, described Aids as a disease that knows no boundaries.

He said: “It doesn’t matter what station in life you are at, how educated you are, how wealthy you are.

Today, Makgatho stands as testimony… this disease is like any other disease – stop stigmatising it.”

Aids activists, opposition politicians and business leaders have hailed Mandela’s public stand, which they said would help to fight the prejudice and fear that prevents many of the estimated 1,500 South Africans infected every day from seeking help before it is too late.

Mandela’s successor as President, Thabo Mbeki, has been criticised for his government’s sluggish response to the crisis, and for courting dissident theorists who question that HIV causes Aids.

Mbeki, who was among the first to extend condolences to the Mandela family, has remained silent on the cause of Makgatho’s death. He once denied knowing anyone who had died of the disease.

But a leading official of his African National Congress party, speaking at Makgatho Mandela’s memorial service, called for increased efforts to fight the disease.

More than five million of South Africa’s 45 million people are infected with HIV – more than in any other country. But until this year the government refused to provide life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs through the public health system, citing concerns about their safety and cost.

It has now promised to provide free treatment to all who need it within five years.

Makgatho Mandela, a lawyer, died last Thursday at the age of 54.

He was one of four children from Nelson Mandela’s first marriage to Evelyn Mase, who died last year at 82. Of the other three children, a daughter died in 1948 before she was a year old, and another son was killed in a car crash in 1969.

Nelson Mandela has had two other wives since divorcing Evelyn in 1955 – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Graca Machel. He has two daughters from his second marriage.

Makgatho Mandela’s wife Zondi died of pneumonia last year. The couple had three sons.

Makgatho Mandela is also survived by another son from a previous marriage.

He will be buried on Saturday in the family’s home village of Qunu in the rural Eastern Cape province.