Sombre Mandela mourns great-granddaughter

A sombre and frail Nelson Mandela attended the funeral for his 13-year-old great-granddaughter today, 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, Mr 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 today, and the public were welcomed to the chapel service, with several hundred people attending, including an overflow crowd in a tent outside.

Mr Mandela's wife, Graca 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 fell lost 3-0 to Uruguay last night.

Team coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, a Brazilian who guided his own national team to World Cup glory in the United States in 1994, said: "We have a moral obligation to fight to the very end against France, we can't put our heads down."

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