South Africa needs better leaders: Mbeki

Former president Thabo Mbeki has suggested that South Africa is in need of better leadership after the death of former president Nelson Mandela.

"Exactly because we are dealing with this more complex struggle, we need to raise the level of the quality of leadership," Mbeki reportedly told a memorial service for Mandela at the Calvary Church, in Midrand, on Wednesday night according to eNCA news.

"To accelerate this progress that we need, we'll come back to this matter about the quality of leadership," Mbeki said.

Mandela, who was South Africa's first democratically-elected president, died at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, last Thursday, at the age of 95.

At his official memorial service in Soweto on Tuesday, sections of the crowd repeatedly booed President Jacob Zuma.

Mbeki, on the other hand, was cheered when he arrived at the event in the FNB Stadium, which was attended by around 100 former and current heads of state,

Mandela's body is lying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria until Friday.

His state funeral will take place on Sunday in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, where he spent most of his childhood.