On Sunday, millions of South Africans gathered for prayers for their fallen hero and the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.

But even as the somber mood engulfed Africa’s largest economy ahead of his burial on Dec. 11, thoughts that the only person that had unified the country and helped them embrace their oppressors during the apartheid era, was gone lingered.

“Nelson Mandela was the greatest — he gave us freedom — he allowed everyone black and white to stand tall in this country,” Charlie Tshabalala, 36, told USATODAY outside the home on Vilakazi Street Mandela once shared with his family before being arrested in 1962 for his role in fighting the racist apartheid regime.

The Noble  Prize laureate was the only figure who many believed could tackle the country’s severe problems with crime, poverty, corruption, and unemployment.

His death leaves the nation without a moral center and at a time when there is growing discontent with the country’s leadership. Emerging from a 27 years’ incarceration for treason against a white minority government, Mandela managed to unite the country and win a democratic election in a resounding victory in 1994.

This feat cannot be compared with the dirty politics the country has descended to under the African National Congress(ANC)  rule.  Several years after Mandela retired from active politics in 2004, he still resonated with the masses in the Rainbow Nation because there is none to take the mantle from him.

“His commitment to transfer power and reconcile with those who jailed him set an example that all humanity should aspire to,” US President Barack Obama said in a tribute, adding that he too, like millions others, had been inspired by describing Mandela’s as an spirit of reconciliation.

Just like Mandela, Obama,  also serves as the first black leaders of the US and  won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mandela’s death ushers in a period of deep unease and painful self-examination for South Africans. In the past year alone, the country has grappled with its most serious unrest since the end of apartheid.

A wave of wildcat strikes by angry miners, a deadly response on the part of the police, a messy leadership struggle within the ANC and the deepening divide between South Africa’s rulers and its impoverished masses were cited  by New York Times as some of the few issues the country is facing.

Scandals over corruption involving senior members of the party have fed a broader perception that Mandela’s near saintly legacy from the years of struggle has been eroded by a more recent scramble for self-enrichment among a newer elite.

After spending decades in penurious exile, many political figures returned to find themselves at the center of a grab for power and money.

President Jacob Zuma himself was charged with corruption before rising to the presidency in 2009, but the charges were dropped on technicalities. He now has faced renewed scrutiny in the past year over $27 million spent in renovations to his house in rural Zululand.

“Does it spell doomsday and disaster for us?” retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu said rhetorically soon after the announcement that Mandela had died. “The sun will rise tomorrow and the next day and the next,” Tutu added.

Just  like Mandela, Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting apartheid and promoting reconciliation in South Africa and he know for being a radical critic of corruption in government.

“For many years now, South Africans have got along with one another largely peacefully without Mr. Mandela having been active in the political sphere,” Lerato Moloi, the institute’s head of research, told AP. “In fact, Mr. Mandela’s passing may be cause for many to reflect on the remarkably peaceful and swift racial integration of many parts of society, including schools, suburbs, universities, and workplaces.”