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ABOVE: Thousands pay final respects to Nelson Mandela

QUNU, South Africa – A casket carrying the remains of Nelson Mandela arrived at his hometown of Qunu Saturday, the day before he is to be buried in the native ground he loved.

The hearse carrying Mandela’s casket, covered with a national flag, arrived at the family compound under cloudy skies at 4 p.m. It was escorted by an enormous convoy of police, military and other vehicles, many flashing emergency lights. A military helicopter hovered near the home.

On the final journey to his home village, Mandela’s memory was honoured amid pomp and ceremony Saturday at an air base in the capital before being flown aboard a military plane to this simple village in the wide-open spaces of eastern South Africa.

At the Mthatha airport Mandela’s casket was welcomed by a military guard and placed in a convoy for the 32 kilometre (20 mile) voyage toward Qunu. Residents and people who had travelled for hours thronged a road leading to Qunu, singing and dancing as Mandela T-shirts were handed out.

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WATCH: The body of Nelson Mandela was transported to the village of Qunu a day ahead of his funeral. It’s from this village in rural South Africa that Mandela first set off on his long walk to freedom. Eric Sorensen reports.



“We got up this morning at 2 a.m. and drove from Port Elizabeth – it’s about seven hours – and we got here now. We’re waiting on to show our last respects to Madiba,” said Ebrahim Jeftha, using Mandela’s clan name.

READ MORE: Some 100,000 come to see Nelson Mandela’s body lying in state, half of them turned away

Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, tearfully embraced at Mthatha airport when the casket arrived.

Mandela had been imprisoned for 27 years for opposing racist apartheid and emerged in 1990 to forge a new democratic South Africa by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. He became president in 1994 after South Africa’s first all-race democratic elections.

VIDEO: Nelson Mandela’s remains arrive in Eastern Cape for journey to Qunu



Soldiers in full gear, male and female, were stationed on foot on either side of the road from the airport in Mthatha as cows grazed nearby. Some civilians were also already lining the route, shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas.

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Mandela had longed to spend his final months in his beloved rural village but instead he had spent them in a hospital in Pretoria and then in his home in Johannesburg where he had remained in critical condition, suffering from lung problems and other ailments, until his death.

There was a surprise announcement in the plans for Sunday’s funeral in Mandela’s home village of Qunu as retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he would not be attending because he had not received an invitation.

“Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral. Had I or my office been informed that I would be welcome there is no way on earth that I would have missed it,” Tutu said.

Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for the presidency, said Tutu is on the guest list and that he hopes Tutu will attend. He said he was surprised by the statement and was looking into it for possible solutions.

READ MORE: World leaders bow, pray at Nelson Mandela’s casket

“This is not an event where you need credentials and I hope a solution can be found,” Maharaj said. “He’s an important person and I hope ways can be found for him to be there.”

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In Qunu, residents expressed deep affection for their beloved native son.

“Long live the spirit of Nelson Mandela,” chanted a crowd on a highway near Mandela’s compound.

“My president,” they sang.

There were also old songs of the anti-apartheid struggle.

“Release Mandela from prison,” went the chorus of one.

Many people carried small national flags or banners with a smiling image of Mandela. Periodically, police and other official vehicles passed by, heading to the compound.

Khanyisa Qatolo, 28, was born in Qunu and attended children’s Christmas parties hosted by Mandela at his home when she was a child in the 1990s.

“I remember his smile,” she said. “I miss his smile.”

Qatolo said she was disappointed that local residents would be unable to go to Mandela’s funeral, in line with local custom, and had instead been asked by officials to view the final rites on big video screens in the area.

“The people of the community, they should be there, supporting the family,” she said.

“I feel bad not to go there,” she said.

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Milly Viljoen, 43, drove 12 hours through the night with a friend to stand on the roadside overlooking Mandela’s compound in Qunu.

“‘It’s befitting to see him to his final resting place,” she said.

Viljoen, a student activist during apartheid, first saw Mandela when he appeared before an enthralled crowd in Cape Town after he was released in 1990. She met him later when he visited the township school where she was teaching.

“You couldn’t help but love the man and be touched and hang onto his every word,” she said.

Mandela’s widow Graca Machel, wearing black, wept and wiped tears from under her glasses at a farewell ceremony at an air base in Pretoria Saturday morning. Mandela’s former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, looking stricken, was also there as well as Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

The late president died in his Johannesburg home Dec. 5 at age 95.

His body lay in state for three days this week, drawing huge crowds of South Africans who mourned his death and celebrated his successful struggle against apartheid.

Gregory Katz in Johannesburg contributed to this report.