Tens of thousands of people are joining world leaders at a memorial service for South African ex-President Nelson Mandela in a rain swept Johannesburg.
US President Barack Obama, Cuba’s Raul Castro and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will address the service, as will four of Mr Mandela’s grandchildren.
The service at the 95,000-capacity FNB stadium was scheduled to start at 09:00 GMT but people are still entering.
The former South African president died aged 95 last Thursday.
Vice president GUY SCOTT is among thousands of top ranking world leaders who have converged at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg to attend the memorial service of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela.
Dr Scott, who touched down at about 08:50 hours at Waterkloof airbase aboard a Zambia Airforce Plane, is accompanied by his wife Charlotte, first president Kenneth Kaunda and foreign Affairs minister Wylbur Simusa.
Other cabinet ministers in the government delegation include Gender minister Inonge Wina and Education minister John Phiri.
The Zambian delegation is braving the heavy rains to be part of this solemn but historical moment in honour of Nelson Mandela who died last Thursday aged 95 years.
Faith Kandaba reports from Johannesburg that the vice president is representing President Michael Sata at Mr. Mandela’s funeral service.
More than hundred world leaders are in South Africa to pay there last respects to Mr. Mandela.
Meanwhile, the Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes – SACCORD says leaders in Africa and globally must emulate Nelson Mandela by promoting reconciliation, humility.
SACCORD Executive Director Boniface Cheembe says despite personal hardships he went through at the hands of the apartheid government , his approach to leadership was not influenced by bitterness or revenge.
Mr. Cheembe has told ZNBC news in a press statement that Mr. Mandela remained focused on ensuring that post 1994 South Africa remained united and non racial.
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