By: The Los Angeles Sentinel
Leader of the anti-apartheid movement, political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner, icon and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela dies at 95.
“Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.” South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said Thursday announcing Mandela’s death.
Mandela died in his home Thursday, December 5 after battling a myriad of health challenges in his old age. In the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton he passed surrounded by loved ones.
Leader of the civil rights movement in South Africa to end apartheid Mandela was taken political prisoner by the country’s then white-minority government. Freed from prison after 27 years he emerged as President leading South Africa to its first multi-racial democracy.
“Profoundly good,” is how President Obama described him Thursday, addressing the American people and the world concerning Mandela’s passing.
“Today he’s gone home and we’ve lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth,” Obama remarked from the White House.
Obama is expected to travel to South Africa for what will be a state funeral for the former president. Zuma has ordered that all South African flags be flown at half-staff from Friday through the funeral.