<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, dies aged 95 <a href="http://t.co/uUQOB2F4x7">pic.twitter.com/uUQOB2F4x7</a></p>— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/statuses/408713958816624641">December 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

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South Africa's Nelson Mandela dies

 

South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has died, South Africa's president says.

 

Mr Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

 

He had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital.

 

In a statement on South African national TV, Mr Zuma said Mr Mandela had "departed" and was at peace.

 

"Our nation has lost its greatest son," Mr Zuma said.

 

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was one of the world's most revered statesmen after preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years.

 

He had rarely been seen in public since officially retiring in 2004.

 

"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves," Mr Zuma said.

 

"Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us together and it is together that we will bid him farewell."

 

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1918 Born in the Eastern Cape

1943 Joined African National Congress

1956 Charged with high treason, but charges dropped after a four-year trial

1962 Arrested, convicted of incitement and leaving country without a passport, sentenced to five years in prison

1964 Charged with sabotage, sentenced to life

1990 Freed from prison

1993 Wins Nobel Peace Prize

1994 Elected first black president

1999 Steps down as leader

2001 Diagnosed with prostate cancer

2004 Retires from public life

2005 Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness

May he forever rest in peace.

Rest In Peace Mandela, thanks for changing the world, History will never forget you

RIP

Thanks for being such an inspiration when it comes to forgiveness and reconciliation. You will not be forgotten. Thank you for your achievements. R.I.P.

 

 

Jens Stoltenberg - the former Norwegian Prime Minister - wrote a very long tribute to Mandela on facebook. Here is the start: The greatest leader in our time

 

At the death of Nelson Mandels we realize that he was greater than the world into which he was born. He was the greatest leader of our time. Prisoner no. 46664 from Robben Island left life as human no. 1.

 

Nelson Mandela accomplished 3 lifeworks in his lifetime: He was in front in the fight against apartheid and won. Then he created reconciliation and a democratic South-Africa. After resigning as president, Mandela dedicated his life to the fight against poverty, against h.i.v. and aids and he supported vaccinations to the children of the world.

Mandela came to my city some 8 years ago for a benefit concert in support of the HIV/AIDS cause. I wish I'd gone to see him, even though I was very young. Stoltenberg puts it well in saying that he accomplished several lifetimes worth of work in one, and that he left the world as human nr. 1. A great man and a huge loss for the world, the Gandhi of our day.

 

There was a memorial I went to in his honor in the town square yesterday.