Mandela Clan outcasts are left off the guest list for funeral because there's no room... but 4,500 VIPs get a pass PHOTO

• Under tribal traditions Mandela's funeral ought to be a family gathering 
• Huge 'marquee' constructed at Mandela's mansion to accommodate VIPs
• But there is apparently insufficient room for many relatives

  

Mr Mandela, who died aged 95, was described as one of the most iconic world leaders in history

It is what he would have wished. But, sadly, it isn’t going to happen. For though the huge ‘marquee’ constructed in the grounds of Mandela’s mansion will accommodate 4,500 VIP guests, among them Prince Charles, there is apparently insufficient room for many relatives.


 
 

His great-nephew Mzwandile Mandela – grandson of the former president’s brother Maurice, who died last year – lives just across the road from the ‘big house’. Yet even this 13-year-old cannot get a pass. 

 

Instead, Mzwandile will have to watch the ceremony on a grainy TV.
‘I’m sad because I would have liked so much to be there,’ he told me forlornly. ‘But they say there are not enough passes for young ones in the family.’ 

Also excluded are Mandela’s niece, Gloria Mkwedini, 38, the daughter of his last-surviving sister and her family of 16.
They live a few miles from the mansion, in one of the many round-shaped, mud-built hovels.

As it has no electricity, they won’t even see the broadcast but will join the throngs jostling for some sort of view. 

Sidelined: Nelson Mandela's niece Nokhaya Mkwedini is among the family members who has not been invited to attend the service

Mzwandile Mandela, 13, a grand nephew of the late Mr Mandela who lives right oppisite Mandela's house in Qunu is not allowed to attend his the funeral and will have to watch proceeding on television

South African boys watch preparations taking place around Nelson Mandela's home in the ancestral village of Qunu

The family grave yard where the great statesman will be laid to rest

‘It makes us feel like outcasts,’ Gloria told me tearfully, blaming the eldest of Mandela’s three daughters, Makaziwe, 59, who, she says, is deciding who should be invited.
‘When my husband asked for accreditation, she refused. I think it’s because we are so poor and she thinks we might embarrass the family.’ The guest-list has also upset the broader community, incensed so few of them will be allowed in.

‘If Mandela could wake tomorrow, he would be very upset because he would have wanted the families of the people he grew up with to be there,’ said local ANC councillor Kwanele Mdikani. ‘After all, this is supposed to be his homecoming.’

Snub: Xhosa youths are pictures in Qunu ahead of the funeral of Nelson Mandela 

Tradition: Locals in Qunu slaughter six sheep in preparation for a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in his birth village