Military escorts Mandela's coffin across Qunu
- 10 years ago
A march and a gun-salute for Nelson Mandela.
The body of the anti-apartheid hero was escorted in a military procession across the rolling hills of his ancestral village of Qunu, and brought to a marquee where a funeral service was to be held before he is buried.
Police and soldiers have sealed off the centre of Qunu, lying 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg, and banished media to a field on top of a hill a kilometre from the cemetery.
In accordance with the wishes of Mandela's family to keep the ceremony private, the only pictures of the burial of one of the 20th century's greatest figures will be via the SABC state broadcaster and an official outside photographer.
In the skies above the village, fighter jets are enforcing a no-fly zone, both for the security of imminent high profile arrivals such as Britain's Prince Charles, and to prevent any prying eyes observing the rites from a passing helicopter.
The huge marquee erected on a hillside for mourn
The body of the anti-apartheid hero was escorted in a military procession across the rolling hills of his ancestral village of Qunu, and brought to a marquee where a funeral service was to be held before he is buried.
Police and soldiers have sealed off the centre of Qunu, lying 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg, and banished media to a field on top of a hill a kilometre from the cemetery.
In accordance with the wishes of Mandela's family to keep the ceremony private, the only pictures of the burial of one of the 20th century's greatest figures will be via the SABC state broadcaster and an official outside photographer.
In the skies above the village, fighter jets are enforcing a no-fly zone, both for the security of imminent high profile arrivals such as Britain's Prince Charles, and to prevent any prying eyes observing the rites from a passing helicopter.
The huge marquee erected on a hillside for mourn