Workers construct a stage inside the FNB Stadium in preparation for Nelson Mandela's memorial service. Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, will join Barack Obama and South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, among the speakers paying tribute to Nelson Mandela on Tuesday at what has been described as the biggest funeral in history. The memorial service in Johannesburg, in effect the first leg of a funeral that culminates with Mandela's burial on Sunday, will also include interfaith prayers, eulogies by four of Mandela's grandchildren and speeches by the presidents of Brazil, Namibia, India and Cuba, along with the vice-president of China. Zuma will deliver the keynote address. For dignitaries attending the service, not least Obama and Castro, a potential diplomatic minefield awaits. But Zelda la Grange, Mandela's personal assistant for more than a decade, told Reuters: "Tomorrow, people should all be honouring their relationship with Madiba. If it means shaking hands with the enemy, yes, I would like to see that. That is what Nelson Mandela was and actually is – bringing people together despite their differences." The cover of the official memorial programme bears the title "State memorial service for the late former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela" above a picture of South Africa's first black president smiling and wearing a characteristically flamboyant shirt. Inside the programme is an obituary over two pages that concludes: "Mr Mandela is survived by his wife, Graca, three daughters, 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren." |