A man holds on June 27, 2013 posters of former South African President
Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, where
the ailing leader is hospitalised. US President Barack Obama June 29,
2013 met the family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela but was unable
to visit the anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in
hospital. AFP
By AFP
US President Barack Obama on Saturday met the
family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela but was unable to visit the
anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in hospital.
Despite tentative signs of an improvement in the
condition of the father of multi-racial South Africa, Obama decided not
to visit Mandela during his visit for fearing of disturbing his "peace
and comfort".
Instead Obama and his wife Michelle met privately
with some relatives of the revered leader including two daughters and
several grandchildren and spoke by telephone with Mandela's wife Graca
Machel.
"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and
comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also
expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work
through this difficult time," Obama said, using Mandela's clan name.
Machel said she had "drawn strength from the support" offered by the Obama family.
"I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration which I have already conveyed to Madiba."
Speaking earlier in Pretoria, where 94-year-old
Mandela lay fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Obama praised
the "moral courage" of South Africa's first black president.
"The struggle here against apartheid, for freedom,
Madiba's moral courage, his country's historic transition to a free and
democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been
an inspiration to the world," Obama said after talks with President
Jacob Zuma.
"The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent
days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to
something very deep in the human spirit -- the yearning for justice and
dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and
country," he added.
Obama said before arriving he did not need "a
photo-op" with Mandela, whom he meet briefly in 2005, and the White
House on Saturday ruled out a meeting between the two men.
"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and
comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the
hospital," the official said.
Obama's three-nation tour is aimed at changing
perceptions that he has neglected Africa since his election in 2008,
while also countering China's growing economic influence in the
resource-rich continent.
But it has been overshadowed by the illness of his
fellow Nobel peace laureate, who has been in intensive care for more
than three weeks.
Zuma said Mandela remained in "critical but stable" condition, expressing hope that he would improve.
Welcoming the US president to South Africa on the
second leg of his tour, he said Mandela and Obama were "bound by
history" as the first black leaders of their respective nations.
"You both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa," Zuma said.
But the US leader was not greeted so warmly by all
South Africans. Riot police fired stun grenades at anti-Obama
protesters in the township of Soweto, once a flashpoint in the
anti-apartheid struggle.
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