Mthatha – “Madiba has been my friend for 65 years. Today I am very, very sad.”
This is what George Bizos, the late former President Nelson Mandela’s long-time friend and attorney, said shortly after landing at the Mthatha Airport in the Eastern Cape on Saturday morning.
Bizos landed at the airport five hours ahead of the arrival of Mandela’s coffin at the airport, where the former statesman will be received with full military honours before being escorted in a 46km procession to his home in Qunu around lunch time.
Speaking of his friendship with Mandela, which has spanned 65 years, an emotional Bizos said while it was still not easy to come to terms with Mandela’s death, he would forever treasure his memories with the world icon.
“I think of the good times and some of the bad times we have had together, from 1948 during the apartheid regime. He was prepared to sacrifice his freedom, and if needs be, even his life in order to establish a democratic and just society in South Africa.
“He set an example not only for us in South Africa, but in Africa and the world at large,” he said.
Bizos was in Mandela’s legal team when he and several others were sentenced to life in prison after facing treason charges during the armed struggle between the late 1950s and early 1960s. The case was known as the “Rivonia Trial”.
After serving 27 years in prison, some of which he spent at Robben Island, Mandela was released from jail and in 1994 became South Africa’s first democratic President, mainly advocating for forgiveness and reconciliation.
Bizos said Mandela always enjoyed coming home to Qunu.
“I am not a stranger to Qunu. It was a place which he liked so much where people would come and see him without making an appointment… and he enjoyed it very much.”
He said while the struggle kept him away from his family, Madiba tried to make up for lost time during his years of freedom, and worked tirelessly to ensure that his family remained united despite several differences.
He said people should continue to pay tribute to Mandela.
“The outpouring of grief, combined with some singing of freedom songs of the past and the dancing of people in honour of his memory, may be regarded by some as a contradiction. I don’t think that it is. People are singing and dancing for what he has left behind, and we are sad that he is no longer with us.”
Mandela will be laid in his final resting place on Sunday. – SAnews.gov.za
