MOSCOW, December 06. /ITAR-TASS/. The Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Moscow will open a book of condolences over the death of leader of the movement against the Apartheid regime and first black South African President Nelson Mandela, the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Moscow told Itar-Tass on Friday. The flags are half-masted at the building of the South African diplomatic mission.

Now the South African embassy is preparing mourning events, including the opening of a book of condolences. The detailed information, including where and how the condolences can be expressed over this sorrowful event will be available within next few hours, an employee of the embassy said.

South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela has died at the age of 95, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday, December 6.

Mandela died in his home outside Johannesburg on Thursday, December 5. “He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20h50 on the 5th of December 2013,” Zuma said. “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.”

Zuma paid tribute to Mandela’s “tireless struggle” for freedom that had earned him the respect of the world. “His humility, his compassion, and his humanity earned him their love. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mandela family. To them we owe a debt of gratitude,” he said. “They have sacrificed much and endured much so that our people could be free.”

The president said Mandela would be accorded a state funeral and ordered that all flags of the Republic of South Africa be lowered to half-mast from December 6 and to remain at half-mast until after the funeral.

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mandela was taken to hospital on June 8 with a lung infection, which could be an echo of the tuberculosis he had suffered from during his 27-year imprisonment. He left the hospital on September 1.

Mandela made his last public appearance at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

In 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and a year later became South Africa’s first black president. He held office until 1999.