July 18, 2007
By Ndaba Dlamini
NELSON MANDELA turns 89 today and the former president and political icon will celebrate part of this auspicious occasion in Johannesburg with other retired leaders.
Standing alongside former US president, Jimmy Carter; former United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan; and former Irish president, Mary Robinson, Madiba is expected to launch a humanitarian campaign to tackle issues such as conflict, Aids and global warming.
The former leaders will be joined in Joburg by Madiba's wife, Graca Machel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other dignitaries, according to newspaper reports.
Bringing together the group of leaders emanates from an idea of business mogul Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel - both British - to create a world council of elders to embark on a global campaign to make the world a better place. Branson and Gabriel, who founded an international human rights organisation and championed the anti-apartheid cause, are also expected to attend the event.
In a statement, the organisers said the group of former world leaders would share how they intended to work together to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity in addressing some of the world's toughest problems.
"This group will remain independent of political constraints and use its collective skills in an attempt to bring bold and innovative solutions to long-standing conflict and leverage resources to help alleviate human suffering."
After the conference, Madiba is expected to celebrate the ninth anniversary of his marriage to Machel - they were married on his birthday - with close friends and family.
In his honour
To mark the occasion and in honour of Madiba, Johannesburg City Parks will plant 89 trees at Thokoza Park, in Soweto, according to Noeleen Mattera, a City Parks media relations officer. After the tree planting, Nthato Motlana, a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, will unveil a plaque.
Celebrations continue in Cape Town, where Fifa, the international football body, and Sepp Blatter, its president, have organised a clash of the titans soccer match featuring the African XI versus the Rest of the World XI. The match, dubbed the Nelson Mandela Cup or 90 Minutes for Mandela, will take place at Cape Town's Newlands Stadium, with kick-off at 8pm.
Football legend Pele and Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon will be playing.
On Thursday, 19 July, celebrations continue when another former US president, Bill Clinton, opens an exhibition focusing on Madiba and the late Chief Albert Luthuli, the anti-apartheid campaigner who won the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize.
Annan will deliver the fifth annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand on Sunday, 22 July and Madiba's birthday festivities will wrap up with a children's party, which has become an annual feature, on Tuesday, 24 July.
The son of a Thembu chief, Madiba was born in Qunu, a village near Umtata in the then Transkei (now Eastern Cape) on the 18 July 1918, where he dreamt of becoming a lawyer. He attended a local mission school, matriculated and enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare; later he moved to Johannesburg, where he completed his law studies.
Joining the African National Congress in 1942, his political career blossomed while he practised as a lawyer, until he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the early 1960s for high treason.
In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other Umkhonto we Sizwe members. On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving this sentence, he was charged in the Rivonia Trial with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Emerging from incarceration after 27 years, on Sunday, 11 February 1990, his spirit unbroken, Madiba continued the struggle against apartheid; he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president on 10 May 1994 and his reconciliatory principles won him worldwide respect when, as president, he cultivated a spirit of oneness in a country formerly torn apart by racial tension.
He served as president until June 1999.
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