Iconic Leader, Nelson Mandela, Celebrates 92nd Birthday
Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela celebrated his 92nd birthday at home with his family on Sunday July 18, just one week after the World Cup showed off the successes of democratic South Africa.
After spending 27 years in an apartheid prison, Mandela emerged in 1990 to lead South Africa to elections that made him president in 1994.
He stayed in power for only one term, but even out of office remained one of the driving forces behind bringing the World Cup to South Africa.
Despite his advanced age and his grief over his great-granddaughter, killed in a car accident on the eve of the tournament, Mandela braved the winter cold to appear for a few moments at the July 11 final.
In gloves, hat and overcoat, he sat next to his wife Graca Machel in an open vehicle to tour the pitch and wave to the fans before Spain’s victory over the Netherlands.
One week later, he will celebrate his birthday at his Johannesburg home with his family and nearly 100 children from villages around his childhood home in the rural Eastern Cape Province.
But this year the world will celebrate with him on the first ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’, which the United Nations decided in November would be observed every year on his birthday to recognise his struggle for peace and freedom.
The Mandela Foundation is asking people around the world to give 67 minutes of their time to volunteer work — one minute for every year that he spent in the struggle for equality.
To publicise that call, celebrities have been travelling on motorcycles from Johannesburg to Cape Town, including Morgan Freeman, the American actor who played Mandela in the film ‘Invictus’.
South African political leaders will also do their bit. Ministers and parliamentarians have promised to roll up their sleeves for volunteer projects in the Eastern Cape.
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