Foundation: Mandela to skip World Cup opening game after death of relative

JOHANNESBURG — The Nelson Mandela Foundation says Nelson Mandela will not attend the World Cup opening ceremony in Johannesburg, after his 13-year-old great-granddaughter was killed in a car crash on the way home from a concert in Soweto on the eve of the World Cup.

Zenani Mandela, who celebrated her 13th birthday June 9, was one of the anti-apartheid icon's nine great-grandchildren.

The foundation says Mandela and his family were "torn up" by the accident and that Mandela would be at the ceremony in spirit.

Foundation spokesman Sello Hatang asked that the Mandela family be given space to mourn.

Mandela, who turns 92 on July 18, has largely retired from public life although it had been anticipated he would make a brief appearance at the World Cup opening ceremony Friday.