The United States Mission to South Africa joins the South African people in mourning the passing of its first democratic president, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
President Mandela embodied greatness and is universally admired in the United States of America. President Barack Obama has long given credit to Nelson Mandela for inspiring his own vision of a better life for the poorest of the poor and for drawing him into a life of activism and politics.
US Ambassador to South Africa, Patrick H. Gaspard, stated, “South Africa and the world lost a great man today. The name Mandela is inextricably linked to the greatest virtue to which all men and women aspire: freedom. He will be an inspiration to young and old alike for the rest of human history.”
The influence and legacy of Nelson Mandela extend far beyond South Africa’s borders, and the world is today poorer with his passing but also richer for his many gifts.
In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “In very truth, he was…the noblest work of God: an honest man.” Hamba Kahle, Son of Africa, Comrade, Madiba.
Friday 6 December 2013 11:32
