Listen Now: 
Tamaki Makaurau MP Pita Sharples is back from South Africa, where he had a chance to poroporoaki the late president Nelson Mandela.
Along with the rest of the official New Zealand delegation, the Maori Affairs Minister attended Tuesday’s official memorial service in Johannesburg.
He delivered a brief oration the next day, stopping as he filed past Mr Mandela’s coffin at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where the anti-apartheid leader was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president in 1994.
"Kings, queens and anybody who could get on the bus really, filed past the coffin. We had the chance to poroporoaki him as we went through and that went down very well but it wasn't meant to go down well, it was meant to be something that you do anyway at a tangi. I explained that to the locals, that this is our way of honouring and farewelling those who have served us well. Overall amazing experience and I'm so glad I was a part of it," Dr Sharples says.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
RELATED NEWS
