which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities it is an ideal which i hope to live for and to achieve. but if needs be, it is an ideal for which i am prepared to die. and nelson mandela lived for that ideal and he made it real. he achieved more than could be expected of any man. and today he s gone home. we ve lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth. he no longer belongs to us, he belongs to the ages. for now let us pause and give thanks for the fact that nelson mandela lived, a man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice.
the iconic leader who has every reason to hate but instead chose to forgive was 95-years-old. he guided south africa from apart hi aapartheid to democracy. jacob zuma told the world the news. fellow south africans, our beloved nelson mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation has departed. he passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20:50 on the 5g9 of december, 2013. and there it was, the announce. . mandela retired from pub leg
then that there would be a negotiation. it was already clear he would be remiss. no debts were fixed. no specific announcements were made, but he has been talking even in the time of my predecessor through four important role players within the government and the national party. having talks about talks, discussing the possibility of negotiation we will talk about the issues which were negotiate later on but exploring the possibility of negotiations and both of us after that first meeting wrote in our perspective autobiographies that we could report back to our constituencies, i think i can do business with this man. there was an immediate i would say a spark between the two of us and not withstanding the many stats we have later, i always
washington cathedral tomorrow morning to finalize the plans. the national cathedral in washington? the national cathedral in washington. we are hoping they will accede to wednesday morning. this gives enough people enough time to get out to south africa if they need to and pay a proper tribute to nelson mandela. i m sure the president will want to be there. unless he s in south africa already by then. we ll see when he s going to south africa. and many thousands of people who would want to be there obviously will not be able to get through. but they can see it on television. all right, ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. once again our deepest condolence to all the people of south africa on this huge huge loss. eleanor holmes norton as usual thank you very much for sharing some thoughts on this very special day. bernie, you re going to stay with us. the first lady of the united states, michelle obama, and a former first lady, hillary clinton, they re among those p
apartheid with f.b. de klerk. this is video from 1977. we weren t allowed to show it until nelson mandela passed away. now we re showing it to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. 1977, he wasn t released from prison until 1990. so this is pretty dramatic. and this man, to follow on what christiane has just said, this man took his anger, and if he had hatred he certainly concealed it. he took it and he fashioned it into moral force. that was the majesty of what he did when he came out. what was his impact, christiane, not only in south africa or here in the united states but indeed around the world? well, massive. around the world absolutely staggering and really massive. and i m sure you ve read so many people are asked who is your favorite leader? who is your hero? everybody says nelson mandela. because he embodies that moral