Invited Guests Only at Mandela Funeral

Updated Dec. 13, 2013 3:13 p.m. ET

People waited in miles-long lines to see Mr. Mandela’s body Friday. Associated Press

QUNU, South Africa—The government said Friday it would bar uninvited well-wishers from attending the weekend funeral of Nelson Mandela after being overwhelmed by people hoping for one last glimpse of South Africa’s first black president.
More than 40,000 people were turned away Friday in Pretoria, where Mr. Mandela’s body was lying in state. Officials said they wouldn’t make it through miles of lines in time to view the body before it is flown to his home village in the Eastern Cape province Saturday morning.
Television footage showed some crowds bursting through police barricades in frustration. By the end of three days, at least 100,000 people had viewed former President Mandela’s body lying in the capital buildings.
The government said it would restrict the funeral at Mr. Mandela’s house in Qunu to the 4,500 invited guests only, including President Jacob Zuma and foreign dignitaries such as several African presidents and Britain’s Prince Charles.

Locals will be barred from showing up at the house because the crowds would be too large, posing safety and security concerns. “This great icon was a people’s person but unfortunately we have to manage the numbers,” government spokeswoman Phumla Williams said.
Three big television screens will be set up around the village for people to watch the funeral, but not the actual burial. Officials said they were also complying with a Mandela family request that the burial be a private event just for the family.
In life Mr. Mandela had an open-door policy in Qunu and would regularly stroll among the round, green-and-pink huts that dot the hills, stopping to speak to residents.
Noxolo Kiviet, the premier for the Eastern Cape province, said she understands people want to come but they must recognize he was an international icon. “Madiba wasn’t just that man in the village,” she said, using his clan name.

As part of preparations, Nelson Mandela’s casket was moved to a military hospital ahead of Sunday’s funeral in Qunu, where he grew up. Hundreds tried to move past police to pay their last respects. Via The Foreign Bureau. (Photo: AP)

Many of Mr. Mandela’s family members arrived on Wednesday and Thursday. Mr. Mandela will be flown from Johannesburg to the city of Mthatha. His coffin draped in a South African flag will be transported in a gun carriage to a hearse that will then drive the roughly 20 miles to his burial site in Qunu. Family members will hold a traditional ceremony Saturday before Sunday’s burial.
The public portion of the funeral that will be televised will take place under a large white marquee that has been erected in the back of the Mandela family home, near the stone plot where Mr. Mandela will be buried.
Mr. Mandela was born in a nearby village of Mvezo, but moved to Qunu when he was young. After his release from prison he built a pink home along the main highway that cuts through Qunu.
Residents here aren’t used to funerals where invitations are issued. Typically, they just show up.

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“People aren’t happy. They feel excluded,” said 21-year old Mawande Ntantiso, who was at the Nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu with his nephew.
Nowathi Vibani, a 57-year old woman from Qunu, said she had hoped to walk past Mr. Mandela’s grave and throw dirt in like she does for others in the community when they die.
“We’re unwanted there,” she says. “I don’t think I will even watch on the screen now.”
As the government prepared for Sunday’s burial, more questions were being raised about the sign-language translator who was used at Mr. Mandela’s memorial at a Johannesburg soccer stadium on Tuesday.

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The interpreter, Thamsanqa Jantjie, stood just feet away from global leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama. His signs prompted protests from deaf people, who said he was signing gibberish. Mr. Jantjie later said he was hallucinating at the time and has described himself as schizophrenic.
On Friday a local news channel reported that Mr. Jantjie had faced charges for murder, rape and kidnapping and other crimes in the past. Reached by telephone, Mr. Jantjie declined to comment.
The South African government said it was still investigating.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government expressed concern over how Mr. Jantjie ended up sharing a stage with the world’s most powerful leaders.
“We’re all very upset about that,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs.
“Those people who needed his services didn’t get those services and weren’t able to understand what was being said, and that was extraordinarily sad,” she said. In addition, she said, there were questions about security “and how this person could have gotten this close to a number of world leaders, not just President Obama.”
—Patrick McGroarty in Johannesburg and Heidi Vogt in Nairobi contributed to this article.
Write to Devon Maylie at devon.maylie@wsj.com

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