(PHOTO) SOUTH AFRICA UNVEILS 30-FEET MANDELA 'UNITY' BRONZE STATUE

A nine-meter (30-foot) bronze statue of Nelson Mandela with his arms
outstretched to symbolize unity and reconciliation was unveiled in
South Africa on Monday, a day after the nation buried the former
president and anti-apartheid hero.
The 4.5 metric ton statue is the largest of Mandela created in the
world and was inaugurated on the lawn of South Africa's hilltop Union
Buildings, the seat of the central government, overlooking the capital
Pretoria.
Mandela died aged 95 on December 5 in Johannesburg and was buried on
Sunday in his home village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province following
10 days of emotion-charged mourning that focused the attention of the
world on South Africa.
"We laid Tata to rest in Qunu only yesterday. Today, he rises
majestically at the seat of government, as a symbol of peace,
reconciliation, unity and progress," South African President Jacob
Zuma said at the unveiling.
"Tata" is the Xhosa word for father, and Mandela is revered as the
father of the new South Africa born from the end of apartheid in 1994
when he became its first black president.
The inauguration coincided with December 16 Reconciliation Day, a
public holiday commemorating the ideal of racial and political
reconciliation that Mandela preached after his release in 1990 from 27
years in apartheid prisons.