{"id":115,"date":"2013-09-09T16:31:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T16:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/2013\/09\/09\/statement-on-ncpg-prayer-service-for-former-president-nelson-mandela\/"},"modified":"2013-09-09T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T16:31:10","slug":"statement-on-ncpg-prayer-service-for-former-president-nelson-mandela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/2013\/09\/09\/statement-on-ncpg-prayer-service-for-former-president-nelson-mandela\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement on NCPG prayer service for Former President Nelson Mandela"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-112\" src=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0174.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"198\" height=\"106\" align=\"left\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0174.jpg 518w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0174-300x162.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/>Various members of the community representing faith based organisations,  private sector and the Public Service came out in numbers to pray for  the former President of our country, Nelson Mandela. The prayer service  was called to give thanks to the life of the former icon and also to  pray that the Almighty should keep him in the palm of His Hand.  Ministers present from different denominations also prayed for Mandela\u2019s  family and relatives and for unity of the nation.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Premier of the Northern Cape, Ms Sylvia Lucas, in outlining the  purpose of the prayer session stated that, \u201cWe need to join with the  rest of the world to pray for Madiba. He challenged us to become a  united nation and described as the rainbow nation. He never made it  about himself but always cared for the wellbeing of the people. Madiba  would like to see all of us Black and White to be united, let us make  sure that his legacy lives on\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The choir of the day Manifest Presence joined in appropriate song for  the well-loved icon and former leader and had everyone joining in  praise.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright size-full wp-image-113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0130.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"204\" height=\"135\" align=\"right\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0130.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0130-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0130-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0130-380x254.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An old-time friend and colleague of former President Nelson Mandela  and now Chairperson of the Veterans League, Ms Evelyn Lubidla shared  stories of her working relationship with Mandela and the type of person  that he was to her. She spoke of kindness of the world leader who she  described as a hero who gave unreservedly of himself to other. She told  those in attendance that, \u201cMandela\u2019s life is a model not just for our  time but all time. Mandela sees the good in others because it is in his  nature and in his interest, in his Inaugural address as the first  democratic Head of State, Mandela vowed that out of experience of an  extraordinary human disaster, must be born a society of which all  humanity will be proud.\u00a0 He hinted at state re-engineering radically  different to that pursued by the apartheid government when he proclaimed  that \u201cwe enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which  all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall,  without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to  human dignify \u2013 a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-114\" src=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0117.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"133\" height=\"88\" align=\"left\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0117.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0117-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0117-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2013\/09\/dsc_0117-380x254.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 133px) 100vw, 133px\" \/>From the attendees it was evident that though many did not have a  personal encounter with him, he was without a doubt the person that made  an enormous impact in their lives and that his legacy and what he stood  for should continue to unite us as South Africans.<\/p>\n<p>Released on behalf of the Northern Cape Provincial Government<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contact persons: <br \/>Bronwyn Thomas-Abrahams <br \/>Mobile: 083 447 6586<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Various members of the community representing faith based organisations, private sector and the Public Service came out in numbers to pray for the former President of our country, Nelson Mandela. The prayer service was called to give thanks to the life of the former icon and also to pray that the Almighty should keep him<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/2013\/09\/09\/statement-on-ncpg-prayer-service-for-former-president-nelson-mandela\/\" class=\"themebutton2\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/otp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}