International

Tuesday morning SP leader Emile Roemer, in the presence of South African ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Goosen, signed the condolence register at the embassy in The Hague. The SP leader was accompanied by SP Senate chief Tiny Kox and Harry van Bommel, the party’s spokesman on foreign affairs.

Emile Roemer signs the Mandela condolence register

Later in the day Ambassador Goosen was a guest of the Senate, where Senate Chair Ankie Broekers-Knol and Prime Minister Mark Rutte reflected on the death of ‘one of the greatest statespersons of our time’, in the Chairwoman’s words. They drew attention to the fact that Nelson Mandela was ready and able to carry off reconciliation even with those who had subjected him personally to huge injustice. Rutte spoke in praise of the love of freedom as well as the preparedness for reconciliation of South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

Throughout the world, next Sunday will see memorial services held, including one in the Leidseplein in Amsterdam, where in 1990 Nelson Mandela addressed thousands of supporters following his release after twenty-seven years of imprisonment.