president jacob zuma, deputy president makalnta and former president bnaki. thank you, thank you, thank you. former president f.w. de klerk.

south african president jacob zuma said our nation has lost its greatest son. our people have lost a father. mandela's hospital has been moved. this is the scene right outside mandela's home there in johannesburg in the out market neighborhood. you can see right now people are laying flowers and to bring tribute to the man widely seen as the father of modern south africa. he was president for five years. he stepped down, has not been president for 14 years but remains very much in the heart of so many people there. this news came later than night south african time and so right now as this country wakes up, 34 minutes past 8:00, many people are learning nelson mandela is at rest. >> and, of course, mandela accomplished so many great things. he was the father of a nation. he led south africa through its battle against oppression and on to democracy and it kept him away from home. he also stayed very close to his family as we've mentioned our robyn curnow has covered nelson mandela since 1996 and she joins us now, once again, live from johanns burg did talk to hi

joseph, the son of jacob. the son of isaac. the son of abraham was thrown into a pit with snakes by his brothers. full of hatred and jealousy towards them and then he was sold into slavery and compiled from his father and from his home for 22 years. many of which -- >> i think he was more a methodist if i'm not mistaken but a man of strong religious faith out wardly. >> no. his family told me he wasn't a man of faith. he believed in infinity. what is key about mandela when you look to him and his sense of himself and where he got his strength from, where, in fact, he got his spirituality from was the rural roots, his african traditional existence. we will say it over and over again. his childhood was filled with rituals and ceremonies and that still was very much in the way he thought even as he, you know, emerged as a modern man, you know, with a law degree and he became president. this is why there is this wonderful mixture of faith that is more deeply rooted in these ancient traditions of africa. >> we have to take a break.

the south africa of today, there are issues here when president jacob zuma was here. he is in power, of course. that's always going to make you a little bit sideways with the people you govern, no matter what country you're in. where is south africa today in terms of realizing the dream of nelson mandela, robyn? >> you have to talk to various different south africans. i think this is a country that is very focused on itself at the moment and that very question. jake on zuma is a very different leader to nelson mandela. and many people are concerned that he doesn't embody the visi visionry, the reconciliation that we saw from nelson mandela. was he just an aberration? is south africa no longer exceptional, just another, ordinary midlevel country? >> i think most people would say no. >> i think no. i'm asking that as a question. this happened, corruption, poverty happens everywhere in the world. why are we more critical here of it now 20 years after mandela? >> i think in short, the achievements are lasting and incredible. >> yes. >> democracy, that has been established

he's been used in at least one other major public event here with jacob zuma. >> i stephen colbert. >> reporter: the controversy fodder for light-night comedians. >> is a scam artist or very, very bad at his job? >> reporter: he says he's employed by south africa's translators, a company in south africa. we're still trying to get to the bottom of how he ended up at the memorial. the anc is saying they didn't hire to be at the event. >> it's confounding this happened. >> right. >> i think the sad reality is there are a lot of people who are watching this event that missed out on hearing the speeches and experiencing the memorial because he wasn't signing what was happening. >> right. >> i think that's why there's been so much outrage about this. interesting to note, there have been complaints about him in the past. >> when he was in front of the president jacob zuma was he interpreting the right way? >> it's believed he wasn't. there had been complaints in the past. it's mind boggling he could be there at this point standing feet away from heads of state, including president obama. >>

. >>> new york businessman jacob austriker is reportedly back in the u.s. that's what an unidentified state department official tells the associated press. family members in the u.s. apparently have not seen or heard from him since his return. he was detained more than two years ago without charge in a bolivian money laundering investigation. >>> an olympic size wardrobe malfunction or fail. turns out the red, white and blue mittens the u.s. olympic committee is selling at the sochi winter games were made in china. says so right on the tag. yes. the usoc says the official mittens that the american athletes will wear during the opening ceremonies will indeed and are definitely made in the good old usa. >> every time i feel like we've got the same thing. >> it's amazing how much the wardrobe -- >> it's that hard to have things not made in china. that's what it tells us. >> yes. >>> let's move to our political gut check of the morning. the senate looking to clear the bipartisan budget compromise by a crucial test vote after several conservative republicans ple

jacob ostreicher is back in america. he's been in a bolivian prison. apparently actor sean penn is involved here. what is this about. >> little is known. that's an understatement. we really have no idea how this guy got from a bolivian prison to here and we have very little sense of how big of a role the actor, sean penn, the actor sean penn, how big of a role he may have played in this whole escapa escapade. here's what we do know. jacob ostreicher after two years in a bolivian prison is back on u.s. soil. >> he arrived in the united states monday morning. >> reporter: and he's hanging out with sean penn. but what we don't know, how he got out. the bolivians didn't let him go. the u.s. government says they didn't help him escape. the only person talking, mr. sean penn. who told the associated press that ostreicher had been secretly extracted in a humanitarian operation to free him from the corrupt prosecution and imprisonment he was suffering in bolivia. was this some kind of intercontinental jail break? penn would only confirm to the ap that he is wi

his mom and grandfather were in on it but his dad and brothers, jacob and jona and josh were truly overcome with emotion when he walked out. taylor has been serving in afghanistan and hasn't been home in a year. >> wow. >> so sweet. >> you can see that. >> they're upping the game on these surprises for families. >> you can see their emotions. >> people getting deployed two, three, four -- i don't have to tell you. >> over a decade of this. it's rough. >> keep going. there's so much strain on the families. there's not a lot of attention about it on the news. the more attention they can get, the better. >> let's continue the joy of that beautiful moment with a check of the weather. the beautiful christmas weather, indra, please. >> look at that spirit. i give her one little gift and she's like, yeah. let's talk about this system making its way offshore. this was the troublemaker, the one we all dealt with over the weekend. this guy is making its way offshore and should not be a problem anymore. where are we going to see snow? tiny little wave. a bigger system, the clipper that's expected to m

i think it's a challenge for the anc there, a challenge for jacob zuma to learn the lessons and move on. >> we've been hearing a lot of wonderful personal stories. we talk about the global impact, the personal stories the people have with the man, the figure, the father. what was your first impression of him when you started your journey with him. >> i had a funny first meeting with him. i was walking with him on "long walk to freedom." he came out of prison, he was unsophisticated about things. he told me about when they first held sound mikes over him, he held his head back like this. he thought it was a weapon. he didn't know what it was. after our first meeting, i said we'll have to have many, many meetings like this. he said, i don't have time for that. i stormed out. i thought, my god, the whole project was over with. when i apologized to him, i said, i have been he was in prison for 27 years, a lovely person to be around, he was sunny and he was a happy warrior and it's very hard to be out of his presence once you've been with him for a long time. >> i want to talk about the n