Nelson Mandela's daughter breaks her silence with the demise of one of the world's most famous politicians. In an interview with BBC, Makaziwe Mandela described that until his father's last moment, his children and grandchildren never left his side: "Until the last moment, he had us."

"When the doctors told us, I think Thursday morning , that there was nothing that they could do, and said to me, 'Maki, call everybody that is here that wants to see him and say bye-bye,' it was a most wonderful day for us, because the grandchildren were there, we were there," recalled Nelson Mandela's daughter.

The 59-year-old daughter of Mandela describes her father's process of death as "wonderful" simply because most members of the family were there to strengthen his soul.

Mandela died last Thursday at the age of 95. For the past few months, he is unable to speak because of the tubes attached to his throat. Family spokesman Temba Templeton Matanzima likewise released a statement of the family's stand in the midst of the trying time: "In this regard, we [the Mandela family] enter into a solemn covenant with you the people of our country, Africa and citizens of the world that we will be true to the values and ideals which Tata stood for. As a family we have no option except to be bound by these values. Let the word go here from hence that we dare not fail!"

Last June, Mandela's eldest daughter expressed her irritation for unprofessional journalists who were bothering his father who was then in a frail condition. "For me it was more about who first gets the story that he's gone. It was not so much, as I saw it, about an interest in the health of the man," she explained.

While the former South African president displayed charisma in public, Makaziwe revealed that her father had difficulties in expressing what he really felt: "People don't understand that, because they see the public persona. But Tata had the public persona and the private persona. He couldn't express his emotions. There were few and far in-between moments when you'd catch Tata in a good mood, and you'd ask him about things and he would engage. But when it came closer to the heart, he would go, 'Oh God what am I doing?' and shut down. Because he grew up in a society where you had to be seen but not heard."

Apart from describing his father, Makaziwe praised the physicians who took care of Mandela: "It was like there were soldiers guarding this period of the king - yes my father comes from royalty - without them knowing they were actually practising our rituals and culture, they were there in silence and when we as family members come in they would excuse themselves and just a few of them would be there to give us the time to be around my dad's bed."