Nelson Mandela, who rose from militant antiapartheid activist to become the unifying president of a democratic South Africa and a global symbol of racial reconciliation, died at his Johannesburg home following a lengthy stay at a Pretoria hospital, President Jacob Zuma said Thursday. He was 95.
南非总统祖马(Jacob Zuma)周四宣布，纳尔逊曼德拉(Nelson Mandela)在位于约翰内斯堡的家中去世，享年95岁。曼德拉曾是积极投身反种族隔离制度的活动人士，后来成为在实现了民主的南非使各方团结在一起的总统。同时他也是全球种族和解的一个象征。曼德拉去世前在比勒陀利亚的一家医院长期住院治疗。
'He passed on peacefully,' Mr. Zuma said in a state television address. 'This is a moment of our deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest son.'
祖马在国有电视台发表讲话说，他平静地走了，此时此刻我们悲痛万分。我们的国家失去了它最伟大的儿子。
Mr. Mandela spent nearly three months in the hospital through September, initially to treat a lung infection. It was the latest in a series of increasingly severe ailments South Africa's first black president had battled since contracting tuberculosis during his nearly three decades in prison for opposing the former white-minority regime.
在截至9月份的近三个月中，曼德拉一直在住院治疗，最初是因为肺部感染。这位南非首位黑人总统曾因反对少数白人执掌的前政府而入狱，在近30年的牢狱生涯中，曼德拉染上了肺结核，之后一直在与一系列不断加重的病痛作斗争。
