South Africa prepared Saturday a sweeping, emotional 10-day farewell to Nelson Mandela -- a funeral that will draw an unprecedented gathering of world leaders and luminaries, reflecting the anti-apartheid icon’s transcendent influence

South Africa prepared Saturday a sweeping, emotional 10-day farewell to Nelson Mandela -- a funeral that will draw an unprecedented gathering of world leaders and luminaries, reflecting the anti-apartheid icon's transcendent influence.

Presidents, heads of government and royalty from every corner of the globe will be among those seeking to pay their respects to modern South Africa's founding father, who died late Thursday aged 95, surrounded by friends and family.

The sheer scale of the event and of the world attention and emotion surrounding it has had observers searching back decades for a precedent, with some citing the funerals of Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill.

Mandela's body will lie in state for three days from Wednesday, ahead of his eventual burial on December 15 in his boyhood home of Qunu.

The government announced Saturday that his coffin would be taken in a cortege through the streets of Pretoria each morning, giving the millions of South Africans still coming to terms with the death of their first black leader an opportunity to say a final farewell.

The organizational logistics are daunting and the military on Saturday cancelled leave for troops and reservists to help crowd control.

Large numbers of mourners, carrying candles, flowers and messages of respect have turned up every day outside Mandela's residence in Johannesburg and in the once blacks-only township of Soweto.

Memorial events begin Sunday with South Africans invited to go to churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship, to pay their respects.

A huge memorial service is to be held on Tuesday in Soweto's 90,000-plus capacity sports stadium that hosted the final of the 2010 World Cup.