Bronze statue of Nelson Mandela unveiled

A nine metre bronze statue of the late Nelson Mandela was unveiled Monday on the grounds of the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Mandela, the country's first black president, died aged 95 in Johannesburg on December 5, plunging his 52 million countrymen and women and millions more around the world into grief, and triggering more than a week of official memorials to one of the towering figures of the 20th century.

Over 100,000 people paid their respects in person at Mandela's lying in state at Pretoria's Union Buildings, where he was sworn in as president in 1994, an event that brought the curtain down on more than three centuries of white domination.