Community church to host memorial service for Mandela

Mourners can gather to remember Nelson Mandela at the Evangelical Community Church in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Nelson Mandela with the late Sheikh Zayed on a state visit in 1995. Courtesy of Al Ittihad

Residents will have a chance to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela at a memorial service in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

“The service is open to everybody,” said Mpetjane Kgaogelo Lekgoro, South Africa’s ambassador to the UAE. “Government representatives of the UAE, the dean of the diplomatic corps and myself will speak.”

The service, starting at 6pm at the Evangelical Community Church in Al Mushrif, will be led by a priest and an imam.

“South Africa has the presence of both religions and being accredited in a country where one of those religions is dominant, we thought it proper and in order that in the proceedings, that should be accounted for,” Mr Lekgoro said.

“We mourn his passing but it’s also a stance of tie that, as South Africans, we had one of the greatest leaders who was on the planet and we had a leader who was a phenomenal citizen of the world, a visionary, somebody who embodied the spirit of people fighting for their own freedom.

“And we also look at it as a deep sense of responsibility that we, as generations that come after him, will have to undertake to achieve the goals that he set to achieve – that of the free people, people free from poverty, people equal before the law and generally people’s happiness.”

There are also plans to set up a large video screen in Dubai to show Mandela’s funeral in South Africa next week.

“One option we’re looking at is for Dubai residents to gather in a location, to bring people together to watch the funeral on a bigger screen,” said Manabile Shogole, the South African consul general.

“We are still shopping around for the venue but people will be able to come together next Sunday and watch the proceedings.

“South Africans and lovers of the country who stood for what Mandela stood for can come together.”