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

Former US presidents attending include Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, plus their wives and 26 congressmen. Ban Ki Moon and Kofi Annan are on the list. Francois Hollande, the French president, is coming, bringing the 2017 election rival, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, will be accompanied by four former heads of state, including Lula da Silva.

Representations from the UN, the European commission and the African Union are also growing in number along with celebrities and musicians including Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel.

Plans were drawn up a year ago for the event, but the numbers appear to have shaken even the best-laid plans.

The government warned that people who wished to attend the memorial service on Tuesday in the 95,000-seat FNB football stadium in Johannesburg could face being turned away, even at the overflow venues. The message arrived along with promises that at least 90 giant screens would be set up at "official mourning sites" in all of South Africa's provinces.

A statement released by Pretoria stated: "People must accept that at some stage this capacity will be filled and police and other authorities will turn people away. Government is doing all it can to allow as many people as possible to be part of these official events, but there are limits to how many people we can reasonably accommodate."

Roads have been closed around the country's main cities and at Qunu, Mandela's Eastern Cape home town, where the burial will take place. Roads there have been closed for several miles around Mandela's pink-walled house, causing consternation to the huge media contingent with its camper vans, satellite dishes, tents and big vehicles.