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The world pays tribute to Mandela (slideshow)
As South Africans come to terms with the loss of former president Nelson Mandela, the rest of the world bids farewell to Madiba.

Pimples: Saving Madiba's rabbit (video)
Gwede, Mac and Blade try their best to stop the rabbit from whispering in Mandela's ear. But the elusive animal has some tricks up its sleeve.

Zapiro's best Madiba cartoons (slideshow)
From his toughest moments to his most triumphant, Madiba has been an inspiration. Here are some of our favourite Zapiro cartoons about him from 1994 to 2013.

Mandela: SA's greatest son laid to rest (slideshow)
The world watched as Nelson Mandela was finally laid to rest in his hometown of Qunu following a dignified and moving funeral ceremony on Sunday.
Mandela rules out blanket amnesty
President Nelson Mandela, in an interview published on Sunday, categorically ruled out a blanket amnesty for human right crimes committed during the apartheid era.

President Nelson Mandela, in an interview published on Sunday, categorically ruled out a blanket amnesty for human right crimes committed during the apartheid era.

"There is no question of a general amnesty and I will resist that with every power that I have," Mandela told a correspondent for the Sunday Independent here.

He said debate on the issue is "futile" as the cabinet had already debated and dismissed it.
Mandela's rejection of amnesty is in line with a recommendation of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which in its final report handed to Mandela in October said the granting of a general amnesty should be avoided "in order to avoid a culture of impunity and to entrench the rule of law."

The TRC recommended that perpetrators be prosecuted unless they applied for amnesty.
Press reports this week claimed moves were afoot to grant a general amnesty to all perpetrators of human rights abuses in KwaZulu-Natal province, where political violence has claimed around 20000 lives in the past 11 years.

Members of Mandela's African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal are known to favour a general amnesty to help boost the fragile peace between it and the Inkatha Freedom Party.

It has been suggested such an amnesty would be the carrot offered the IFP in plans to it into a national coalition government after elections next year.

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthlezi was sharply criticised by the TRC, which said that, as head of the movement, he is morally responsible for more than 9,000 human rights violations. Mandela, in the interview, said he was also vehemently opposed to the death penalty because it was a "reflection of the animal instinct still in human beings."

"There is no evidence anywhere that the death penalty anywhere has brought down the level of crime," he said.