曼德拉“世纪葬礼”在即南非当局压力大_BEC初级作文

曼德拉“世纪葬礼”在即南非当局压力大

"This is African time, little angry one," said a Johannesburg radio reporter from Jacaranda FM, pushing past a Japanese television producer.

Tempers were fraying. "We have 10 people waiting here who should be out there working," said Trust Dube, of the Dimension television company. Jan Muller, with a German film crew, said: "This is terrible because we need to be other places. Very stressful."

A harried official at the centre, who was not happy to be named, said: "We had four years to prepare for the World Cup but only months to prepare to lose Madiba. No, I cannot tell you how many we have processed and I cannot tell you how many are still to be processed. Perhaps you would like to do this?"

An enterprising ice cream seller was soon on the scene.

There were tensions between media outlets at some church events as cameras could barely film without getting another camera in the shot. Many of Johannesburg's 165 hotels were full, although no room rate hikes have been reported.

Marie Marguerite, 54, from Ohio in the US, was arriving at the Hilton with five friends after a 14-hour flight. "We have followed Nelson Mandela's story all our lives and our church supports his children's fund, so we came. It's a moment of history and we wanted to join with our president in showing that everyone loved Madiba."

President Barack Obama is expected to enter South Africa this week, along with VIPs in their hundreds. Thirteen heads of African states have confirmed attendance at Sunday's funeral.