South Africans line up to view Nelson Mandela's body

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Protesters demonstrate in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug.16, 1962, demanding Mandela’s release after his second arrest. His wife, Winnie, whom he had married in 1958, joined the protests. Mandela was sent to a penal colony off Cape Town, where he spent 13 years laboring in a quarry. (Dennis Lee Royle / Associated Press)

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Mandela and other African National Congress activists were freed in 1990. On Feb. 11, Nelson and Winnie Mandela march through Paarl with a cheering crowd. (Alexander Joe / AFP/Getty Images)

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South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela waves to the media and guests after making a joint statement with President George H.W. Bush on the White House South Lawn on June 25, 1990. (Kevin Larkin / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mandela attends a service at First United Methodist Church in Los Angeles in 1993. (Axel Koester / For The Times)

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Mandela and President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, for their leadership of a negotiated transfer of power from South Africa’s white minority to the black majority. (Jon Eeg / Associated Press)

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Nelson Mandela listens to speakers at a campaign rally at Soweto Stadium before addressing the crowd himself on April 23, 1994, three days before national elections. (Walter Dhladhla / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mandela casts his ballot April 27, 1994, during South Africa’s first democratic election, marking the first time he -- or any black person in the country -- had been able to vote. (Walter Dhladhla / AFP/Getty Images)

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Nelson Mandela and regional African National Congress leader Allan Boesak, right, greet the crowd at a campaign rally on April 17, 1994, 10 days before South Africa’s first all-race national elections. (Guy Tallim / AFP/Getty Images)

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Nelson Mandela dances with Imilonji Kantu choir members at a victory celebration on May 2, 1994. (Los Angeles Times / Los Angeles Times)

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South African President Nelson Mandela addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Oct. 3, 1994. (Jon Levy / AFP/Getty Images)

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President-elect Nelson Mandela waves to the crowd with his two deputy presidents -- Thabo Mbeki, left, and Frederik de Klerk -- after the inaugural sitting of South Africa’s first all-race parliament on May 9,1994. Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black head of state by the post-apartheid assembly. (Alexander Joe / AFP/Getty Images)

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Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat speaks with Mandela in Tunis in 1994 during an African summit. Arafat was an observer at the summit. (WAFA / Associated Press)

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President Nelson Mandela walks with Pope John Paul II after the pontiff’s arrival at Johannesburg airport September 16,1995. This was the Pope’s first official visit to South Africa. (Walter Dhladhla / AFP/Getty Images)

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Queen Elizabeth II pays a state visit to South Africa in 1995, the first by a ruling British monarch since 1947. (Adil Bradow / Associated Press)

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South African President Nelson Mandela speaks before a special session of the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 23, 1995, in which he appealed to the U.N. to redefine its role in the world and reshape its structure. (Timothy Clary / AFP/Getty Images)

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President Mandela at his Pretoria residence with Percy Yutar in 1995, who as a state prosecutor 31 years earlier sentenced Mandela to life in prison. (Adil Bradlow / Associated Press)

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President Mandela and Vice President Al Gore after a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa in 1997. (Sasa Kralj / Associated Press)

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President Mandela greets Britain’s Princess Diana during her 1997 visit to Cape Town, South Africa. (Sasa Kralj / Associated Press)

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In Libya, President Mandela visits with leader Moammar Kadafi in 1997. (Enric Marti / Associated Press)

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South African President Nelson Mandela takes the arm of British Prime Minister Tony Blair as they chat while strolling on the grounds of the Royal and Ancient St. Andrews Golf Course during a break in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Oct. 26, 1997. (Johnny Eggitt / AFP/Getty Images)

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Presidents Mandela and Clinton look out from a cell on Robben Island in Cape Town’s Table Bay in 1998. Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in this prison cell during apartheid. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

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U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, left, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Clinton welcome President Mandela during a 1998 visit to Washington. (Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images)

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At Mandela’s Pretoria residence in 1998, he and Graca Machel examine a birthday card for him from his former prison guard. Mandela and Machel were married later that day in Johannesburg. (Adil Bradlow / Associated Press)

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Nelson Mandela shakes the hand of Pope John Paul II during a visit by Mandela to the Vatican on June 18, 1998. (Paolo Cocco / AFP/Getty Images)

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President Nelson Mandela shows off his just-received honorary degree from Harvard University on Sept. 18, 1998. (John Mottern / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mandela, then the outgoing president, casts his ballot at a Johannesburg polling station during South Africa’s 1999 election. (Peter Dejong / Associated Press)

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South African President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki wave to well-wishers after Mandela’s last major address to Parliament on Feb. 5, 1999. (Obed Zilwa / Associated Press)

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Nelson Mandela receives Michael Jackson for a visit on March 23, 1999. (Anna Zieminski / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mandela, standing behind Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, joins a royal gathering at St. James’ Palace in London on Oct. 31, 2002. to mark the centenary of the Order of Merit. (Kirsty Wigglesworth / AFP/Getty Images)

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Former President Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, join United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President Thabo Mbeki on stage at the World Summit on Sustainable Development on Sept. 2, 2002. (Pedro Ugarte / AFP/Getty Images)

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Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz walks past a photograph of Nelson Mandela as a political prisoner on Robben Island during an official visit to the country on July 6, 2002. (Anna Zieminski / AFP/Getty Images)

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Nelson Mandela speaks at an AIDS conference on July 14, 2003. (Jean Ayissi / AFP/Getty Images)

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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton shakes hands with former South African President Nelson Mandela during the inaugural Nelson Mandela Lecture at the Johannesburg Civic Centre, on July 19, 2003. The lecture coincided with Mandela’s 85th birthday. (Rajesh Jantilal / AFP/Getty Images)

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Nelson Mandela holds the Jules Rimet World Cup at FIFA headquarters after South Africa won the right to host the 2010 World Cup finals, the first to be played in Africa, on May 15, 2004. (Franck Fife / AFP/Getty Images)

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Nelson Mandela celebrates his 89th birthday flanked by former President Jimmy Carter, right, and former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, during the launching ceremony of the group known as the Elders -- a brain trust of elder statesmen -- on July 18, 2007. (Alexander Joe / AFP/Getty Images)

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Lithographs by Mandela are displayed as part of an exhibition of his works at Belgravia Gallery in London in July, 2008. (Sang Tan / Associated Press)

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A group of schoolchildren participates in a program at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on the eve of Mandela Day on July 17, 2011. (Stephane de Sakutin / AFP/Getty Images)

By Robyn Dixon

Dec. 11, 2013 5:17 PM PT

PRETORIA, South Africa — Theophalus Riba got up early Wednesday and hurried to participate in something momentous: He stood in line for five hours under the hot sun to see the casket of Nelson Mandela.

The last time Riba had waited in line that long was in 1994, when he was voting for Mandela as president in the nation’s first truly open elections.

Mandela’s body lay in state Wednesday at the Union Buildings, once a powerful symbol of South Africa’s brutal system of apartheid and the site where he was sworn into office 19 years ago as the country’s first black leader.

Laid in a casket made partly of glass to show his face, Mandela, who died last week at 95, was dressed in one of his trademark batik “Madiba shirts,” in black and gold. He bore a peaceful, serene expression that greeted those who came to pay homage to the man who negotiated a peaceful end to apartheid and ushered in a stable democracy.

“When I first heard the old man had left us, I was in a terrible state. But now that I’ve seen his face, I’m very relieved,” said Theboho Sephapo, 32, a Defense Department employee. “His face was as beautiful as it was when he was alive.

“The facial expression was at peace,” Sephapo said. “It’s a sign of a man who’s at peace with the world. That made me feel at peace as well.”

Some mourners collapsed with grief as they passed the body and had to be helped away. Others wept silently.

Mandla Mandela, the grandson chosen by Mandela to be chief of their clan, stood by the casket. Earlier he had looked stricken as he followed the coffin as it was carried into the complex’s stone amphitheater, which President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday formally named for Nelson Mandela.

Most South Africans got their first view of the flag-draped coffin early Wednesday as it left 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, and for many the reality of the nation’s loss seemed to be hitting home.

The mood was somber and deeply sad, in contrast to the joyful celebrations of his life in recent days marking Mandela’s contribution as a freedom fighter and peacemaker.

The casket was set under a grand mahogany canopy with a roof of translucent fiberglass tiles, where it was to lie for three days. Zuma entered first to view the body, followed by Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, who placed her hands on the casket and gazed at Mandela before walking on, wiping away tears. Other members of the Mandela family followed.

South African and world leaders then filed past, pausing and bowing in front of the coffin. Former President Thabo Mbeki, who was Mandela’s deputy and successor, paid tribute as well.

F.W. de Klerk, the man who with Mandela negotiated the transition from white-minority rule and who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with him, showed visible emotion as he passed. The men received the award almost 20 years ago to the day, on Dec. 10, 1993.

President Obama, who attended Tuesday’s memorial service in Johannesburg, was back in the U.S. by Wednesday morning.

The long, snaking lines to view Mandela’s body recalled those that black South Africans stood in during the 1994 elections, voting for the first time and overwhelmingly for Mandela. On Wednesday, some carried babies on their hips, some stood stoically in the sun, others flopped exhausted on the grass. By early afternoon, people toward the end of the line wore expressions of defeat.

One woman who had fainted in the heat was treated by paramedics.

Officials said there weren’t enough buses to shuttle people from three remote locations to the Union Buildings, leading to long delays. Hundreds waited half a day or more only to be turned away just after 4 p.m. so the body could be returned to the mortuary for the night.

Members of the public were told to walk past the body without pausing, although another Mandela grandson, Ndaba, had requested that they pause and look into the casket.

“I felt a very emotional feeling, seeing this great man, a powerful man, a man who stood up for the country, lying down there,” said Charlotte Parker, 24, a member of the ruling African National Congress and a provincial government intern. “I shed tears. I felt hurt, because in my mind I was saying I wish I could have seen him alive, at least shaking his hand, not at his last moment.”

Irene Makitla, 33, of Mamelodi township outside Pretoria had gotten up at 5 a.m. to be there.

“I never got the chance to see Mandela when he was alive, so I thought this is a chance to come and pay my respects,” she said. “It was so difficult. I felt so emotional. I wished I could just hold his hand.”

A government spokesman said that beginning Thursday, visitors would have their fingers dipped in ink to ensure that they didn’t get in line again.

“Organizing authorities appeal to people to be patient. Government is trying to accommodate as many people as possible,” said Collins Chabane, minister in the president’s office. “For this to happen, visitors must comply with the very strict military protocols that govern the lying-in-state. Mourners must set out from home early in the morning and be prepared to wait in line.”

Makitla predicted that many people would miss out.

“I know many, many people want to come and see him, and it will be difficult for them. There were so many people waiting.”

Mandela’s body will be flown to his home village of Qunu on Saturday, with burial to follow Sunday.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com