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By DANIEL EDOR
USATODAY
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Cape Town crowds pay respects to Mandela

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CAPE TOWN – One of Cape Town's central meeting places is City Hall, from which Nelson Mandela made his first public appearance after his release from prison in 1990. From the balcony, the anti-apartheid icon greeted the crowd gathered on the large open area known as the Grand Parade.
Since Friday morning, Capetonians have gathered here to pay their respects. On Saturday, a steady stream came to place flowers and mementos, to sign condolences and to share their memories with one another. They used words like "volunteer," "love," "defiance" and "action" when talking about the man many called father of the nation.
Like many people originally from South Africa's Eastern Cape province, where Mandela was born and where he will be buried, Lutho Masiko, an environmental health student, plans to head to the former president's burial as well.
"If you ask kids, 'Who's your role model?,' the first person is always Madiba," he said, using Mandela's clan name. "When I ask my younger sister and brother, you'd expect them to say, 'You, big brother,' but no, it's Madiba," he said with a laugh.
The most important lesson Masiko said he learned from Mandela is forgiveness. "It's something I struggle with. As I learned more of what he handled and how, it impacted me."
Masiko described the mood on Friday as celebratory. "We were celebrating a leader. Rejoicing, praising him."
Marius Fransman, South Africa's Deputy Minister of International Relations, took off his baseball cap before placing a bouquet of flowers on the ground.
"We are saddened that our leader, our hero, the revolutionary, the servant of all servants, [is] just no more," Fransman said. "Six months ago we had a difficult period where he was so ill, but he was still fighting, he was battling it out."
"Tata (Father) Madiba was an internationalist," Fransman went on to say. "He understood that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. South Africa will only be free if we free the people of Palestine. Unity, justice, inequality; he was against oppression."
Michael Stevenson, of Chicago, first visited South Africa in 1991 and returned again on Thursday.
"The minute we landed in Johannesburg, the captain came on to say, 'For those who don't know, what happened last night was the passing of Nelson Mandela,'" said Stevenson. "There was an eerie calm (on) the airplane. A few gasps of disbelief. And then, of course, we all got out our hand-held devices and started checking our emails, seeing the news."
Megan Langenhoven, 28, felt "immense sadness" when she heard the news.
"It touches you as if you are losing your own family member," Langenhoven said. "(Mandela's) daughter said she was 18 months old when he went to prison. I can't imagine leaving my son behind," she said, gesturing to her young son in a stroller.
Ellen Graziano, of Rockville Center, N.Y., had just arrived on her first trip to South Africa when she heard of Mandela's death. "He was so monumental to equality. It's very special that I'm able to share this historical moment," she said.
The public are invited to continue to visit the Grand Parade throughout the week. An interfaith prayer and song session is planned for Sunday evening.
People gather to pay their respects to the late South African President Nelson Mandela at the Mandela statue in Parliament Square in London.
People gather to pay their respects to the late South African President Nelson Mandela at the Mandela statue in Parliament Square in London. Andy Rain, epa
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  • People gather to pay their respects to the late South African President Nelson Mandela at the Mandela statue in Parliament Square in London.
  • Candles are placed in front of the image of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela during a vigil by Palestinians and members of the African community in Old City of Jerusalem.
  • Mourners gathered in front of the South African embassy to pay their respects to the memory of Nelson Mandela in Tehran.
  • Flowers and candles are being placed in front of the South African Embassy in Paris.
  • Memorabilia for sale outside the house of the late South African president in Johannesburg.
  • A child draws in the condolence register on a page where her mother left a message for "Tata" or "Father" Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Johannesburg, South Africa. Flags were lowered to half-staff and people in black townships, in upscale mostly white suburbs and in South Africa's vast rural grasslands people commemorate Nelson Mandela with song, tears and prayer.
  • Prayer lamps are seen lit during a prayer meeting held by the Tibetan government in-exile, dedicated to Nelson Mandela and Tibetan self immolator Kunchok Tseten who died after a self immolation protest in Tibet recently at the main Tibetan Tsuglagkhang Temple at McLeod Ganj near Dharamsala, India.
  • Galatasaray's Didier Drogba from Ivory Coast salutes soccer fans as he wears a jersey in sign of respect for Nelson Mandela before their Turkish League match with Elazigspor in Istanbul.
  • Leftist party activists carry a placard bearing the portrait of South African former president Nelson Mandela during a rally held in his memory in Kolkata, India.
  • Mourners leave messages outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa.
  • People walk near a sand sculpture of late Nelson Mandela made by few students at Sangam, the confluence of the Rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati, in Allahabad, India.
  • South Africans gather to pay respects to former President Nelson Mandela outside his Houghton home in Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • A woman cries after placing flowers in front of a picture of former South African president Nelson Mandela during an interfaith service Dec. 6, 2013, at the Grand Parade in Cape Town, where Mandela made his first speech as a free man in 1990.
  • A man reads a newspaper after the death of Nelson Mandela Dec. 7, 2013, in Melbourne, Australia.
  • Mourners sing in memory of Nelson Mandela outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, on Dec. 6, 2013.
  • A man lights a bundle of incense at a vigil outside the South African Consulate, held in memory of South Africa's former leader Nelson Mandela.
  • Schoolchildren hold candles and portraits of former South African president Nelson Mandela at a school in Ahmadabad, India, on Dec. 6, 2013. Mandela, South Africa's first black president, died Dec. 5 in Johannesburg after a long illness. He was 95.
  • Mourners sing outside the house of Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg.
  • Mourners place flowers outside Nelson Mandela's house in Johannesburg.
  • A figurine of Nelson Mandela is seen in the workshop of artist Genny Di Virgilio in Naples, Italy, as an artist makes a small placard.
  • Indian men hold placards and candles as they pay tribute to Nelson Mandela in Bangalore, India.
  • Flowers surround the Nelson Mandela statue in London's Parliament Square.
  • Flowers left in tribute to Nelson Mandela hang on the construction fencing in front of a statue of Mandela at the South African Embassy before daybreak in Washington.
  • A Palestinian demonstrator places portraits of Nelson Mandela alongside late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the wire fence during the weekly demonstration against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah.
  • Tourists offer floral tributes at a sand sculpture of Nelson Mandela on a beach in Puri, India.
  • South African children hold placards showing the face of Nelson Mandela as they celebrate his life in the street outside his old house in the Soweto neighborhood of Johannesburg.
  • A woman touches a statue of Nelson Mandela at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
  • Flowers and tributes lie at the foot of a statue of Nelson Mandela in London's Parliament.
  • This picture shows a framed image of former South African president Nelson Mandela as people pay tributes following his death, in Johannesburg.
  • South Africans hold pictures of former South African president Nelson Mandela as they pay tribute following his death in Johannesburg.
  • South Africans hold pictures of former South African president Nelson Mandela as they pay tribute following his death in Johannesburg on Thursday.
  • A woman with a banner pays tribute to Nelson Mandela outside South African High Commission in London on Friday.
  • Candles burn amongst floral tributes for Nelson Mandela outside the South African High Commission in London.
  • South Africans gather for a candlelight vigil outside the house of former South African president Nelson Mandela following his death in Johannesburg.
  • Sowetans mourn the death of former president Nelson Mandela outside his former home, now a museum, in Soweto, South Africa.
  • England cricketers observe a moment of silence to mark the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela on the second day of the second Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia in Adelaide.
  • A woman lights a candle for Nelson Mandela outside South African High Commission in London.
  • South Africans hold a candlelight vigil outside the house of former South African president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg. Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died at age 95.
  • Australian and English cricket fans observe a minute's silence to mark the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela on the second day of the second Ashes cricket Test match in Adelaide on Dec. 6.
  • A message on a floral tribute is left for Nelson Mandela outside South African High Commission in London.
  • South African police set up a cordon outside the house of former South African president Nelson Mandela after his death. Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died at age 95.
  • A man prays under the marquee at the historic Apollo Theater on Dec. 5, which announced the death of former South African president and civil rights champion Nelson Mandela.
  • Mourners gather in front of a statue of Nelson Mandela at the South African Embassy in Washington, which is currently under renovation.
  • Mourners gather outside the home of former President Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg.
  • People light a candle for former president Nelson Mandela on Dec. 5, 2013, outside his home in Johannesburg, after hearing of his death.
  • President Obama makes a statement at the White House regarding the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela.
  • An artist who goes by the name "Franco the Great" stands in front of a mural of South African leader Nelson Mandela that he painted in 1995, and later added President Obama, on 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of New York.
  • A portrait of Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where he was being treated in Pretoria, South Africa.
  • People examine a painting by Brazilian muralist Eduardo Kobra that features the face of Nelson Mandela on a wall on Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles on Thursday.
  • Keaton Anderson, 10, poses for a photograph for his father Dijon Anderson, of Bowie, Md., as they visit the statue of Nelson Mandela at the South African Embassy in Washington, which is currently under renovation.
  • Patrons gather at the Madiba South African restaurant after the announcement of the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela.
  • Pedestrians pass beneath the Apollo Theatre marquee commemorating the life of South African leader Nelson Mandela in the Harlem neighborhood of New York.
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