Cape Town commemorates Mandela

A commemorative event will take place in the Cape Town stadium on Wednesday 11 December to honour Nelson Mandela who died at his home in Houghton in the suburbs of Johannesburg on 5 December.

The memorial starts at 16.00 and the gates of the stadium will open at 14.00.

A coupon system is in place and those wishing to attend are allowed five coupons each but must have identification when they retrieve their tickets from Shoprite and Shoprite/Checkers stores in Cape town.

The tickets include free transport. People going to the stadium are asked not to go by car. The city requested only people with coupons to make their way to the stadium.

On 10 December all tickets had been sold out for the 64,000-seat stadium. The city has asked anyone not using all five tickets to give them away to others who would like to attend.

The Cape Town memorial event takes place the day after the one in Johannesburg attended by heads of state and government from around the world.

On Sunday 15 December, the day of the official funeral in Mandela’s home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape there will be an interfaith service on the Grand Parade, where Mandela made his first speech after being released from Robben Island prison in 1990. There will also be an all-night vigil in the Grand Parade on Saturday night, beginning at 17.00.