No room at the inn as SA readies for Mandela memorials

All Johannesburg hotels have been booked out ahead of the memorial service and state funeral for Nelson Mandela. Image: Michelangelo

Mandela will be buried at his ancestral home of Qunu in the Eastern Cape on Sunday‚ 15 December‚ after 10 days of national mourning. A memorial service will take place at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on today, 10 December.

Between 11 and 13 December Mandela's remains will lie in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria‚ where he was inaugurated as the first president of a democratic South Africa in 1994.

The government said that it was planning a public procession to take Mandela's body from Johannesburg to Pretoria after the official memorial at the FNB Stadium on Tuesday.

"Every morning‚ when the remains leave the mortuary to lie in state‚ those routes will be made known to the public so they can pay their respects as the entourage moves by‚" said GCIS chief director Neo Momodu.

Eric Sakawsky, the general manager at Corporate Traveller‚ a division of Flight Centre said that very little accommodation is available in Johannesburg or Pretoria because of the number of people who are coming to the memorial service.

"We've been told that due to various government and consulate arrangements‚ all hotels in Gauteng will be on a block-out from 6 to 25 December," said Sakawsky.

He said the block bookings will not affect travellers who had previously booked in Gauteng hotels adding that rental car companies nationally‚ and in particular in Gauteng‚ were affected by the influx of people.