Mr Mandela has reached 95 years of age today on Thursday 18.July.2013. The former activist
who is said to be in critical but stable condition with a chronic lung
infection, was admitted in hospital on 8 June. Madiba’s daughter Zindzi revealed
that the former anti-apartheid leader health’s was remarkably improving.
In another interview
Jacob Zuma the president of South Africa said him and all South Africans were
proud to call Mr Mandela an international icon their own as South Africans and
wished him good health.
Mandela's birthday is
also Nelson Mandela International Day, a day declared by the UN to recognise
the Nobel Prize winner's contribution to peace and reconciliation.
The former prisoner is
venerated across the entire world for his role in ending apartheid against the
black majority in South Africa.
Mandela was also the
first black president in the country's first all-race elections in 1994 which
saw ANC Take power from the former white dominated rule.
The day kicked off
with millions of school children across South Africa singing Happy Birthday to
Mr Mandela. Volunteers started to renovate schools and orphanages, cleaning
hospitals and distributing food to the poor. The whole world is also expected
to organize ceremonies and prayers in honor of the bedridden Hero.
A poster project
offering a global vision of Mandela, with 700 submissions from around the
world, is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday and auctioned off for charity.
His birth day comes amidst
family conflicts over his burial site as well as for his fallen children. Mandela's
granddaughter Ndileka said on Wednesday that she had been hurt by a continuing
family feud over the burial place of three of Mr Mandela's children, as well as
his own resting place. The conflicts have greatly created divisions among
Madiba’s family which led to one of his grandson Mandla to be suspended by the
paramount Xhosa King who reins from Qunu village.
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