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Former president Nelson Mandela began his final journey home to Qunu in the Eastern Cape on Saturday as an air force plane carrying his casket took off from Pretoria, where tens of thousands of mourners have viewed him lying in state this week.
Members of Mandela's family accompanied his remains to the village where he will be buried on Sunday in a state funeral
incorporating Xhosa burial rites.
The Hercules C-130 and two Gripen fighter jets left Waterkloof Air Force Base after a send-off ceremony organised by the African National Congress, making the occasion a final ANC tribute to the man who led the movement to power.
Embattled President Jacob Zuma, who was booed by mourners at Mandela's official memorial at FNB Stadium in Soweto on Tuesday, said the party needed more people of Mandela's stature to meet the problems facing the country some two decades into democracy.
