Nelson Mandela
The
arrival of an army of reporters, photographers and television crews for
Nelson Mandela’s funeral on Sunday has created a security nightmare for
South African authorities.
Police and soldiers have sealed the
centre of the anti-apartheid hero’s ancestral village of Qunu, lying in
rolling hills 700 km south of Johannesburg, and banished media to a
field on top of a hill a kilometre from the cemetery.
In accordance with the wishes of
Mandela’s family to keep the ceremony private, the only pictures of the
burial of one of the 20th century’s greatest figures will be via the
state broadcast and an official outside photographer.
In the skies above the village, fighter
jets are enforcing a no-fly zone, both for the security of imminent high
profile arrivals and to prevent any prying eyes observing the rites
from a passing helicopter.
A huge marquee erected on a hillside for
mourning family members, tribal elders, top government figures and
official guests blocks the view of nearly the entire family plot, where
three of Mandela’s children are already buried.
That is not likely to deter
photographers with long lenses from sneaking the last shot of South
Africa’s first black leader, as his coffin is lowered into the ground at
the end of funeral rites, expected to mix Xhosa tradition with military
pomp and ceremony.
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