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South Africa began preparing on Saturday to welcome a raft of world leaders for former president Nelson Mandela's funeral, as the country readied for a future without the man who led it to democracy.
President Barack Obama was among the first to confirm that he would fly to South Africa to honour Mandela, along with his
predecessor, George W Bush.
And former US leader Bill Clinton said he would bring his family to pay their respects to the man he called a friend and "giant among us".
Ahead of Mandela's state funeral in Qunu next Sunday, a spontaneous display of respect and grief continued to grow on
Saturday morning.
Outside Mandela's Houghton home, where he died two days earlier, mourners placed notes thanking him for transforming the country, and in front of Cape Town's City Hall -- the site of Mandela's first speech as a free man -- floral tributes piled up.
The government announced that it was planning a public procession to transport Mandela's body from Johannesburg to
Pretoria, where he will lie in state at the Union Buildings from Wednesday to Friday, after an official memorial in Soweto on
Tuesday.
