PARLIAMENTARIANS on Tuesday rained praise on former president Nelson Mandela at a special debate on his release from apartheid jails a decade ago and proposed that his bust be erected in the legislature. The proposal was mooted by ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni and supported by opposition politicians, who voiced as much admiration for Mandela as those in the ANC, which he led until late 1997. The official opposition Democratic Party’s Douglas Gibson said Mandela had united black and white people as South Africans. “He knew the future of our country depended on a coming together of all the peoples of the land,” Gibson said.