The mood was of celebration yesterday as thousands of South
Africans sang “Happy Birthday” and took part in charitable initiatives in a
global outpouring of support for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate on
U.N.-designated ‘Nelson Mandela Day’.
Ethiopian and Nigerian asylum seekers who had settled in
South Africa fleeing persecution and conflict in their own countries cleaned
streets in Johannesburg to pay tribute to a figure widely praised as “a father
of Africa”.
“In this country, Mandela is the reason all of us blacks are
free, so that’s why we love him as the first citizen,” said Kennedy Uzondu, 30,
a Nigerian trader who has lived in South Africa for three years.
The country has been on edge since the former president and
father of the multi-racial ‘Rainbow Nation’ established at the end of apartheid
in 1994 was admitted to hospital on June 8 with recurring lung problems that
kept him in a critical condition.
It was his fourth stay in hospital in six months and has
reminded South Africans that the man who is globally admired as a moral beacon
against injustice and a symbol of racial reconciliation will not be with them
forever.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed Mandela as “a
giant of our times” and called on people around the world to pay tribute to him
through community service.
South Africans young and old commemorated the birthday with
67 minutes of public service to honor the 67 years Mandela served humanity by
first fighting against white-minority rule and then consolidating racial
harmony when he was president.
Many offered birthday wishes outside the Pretoria hospital
where Mandela has been receiving treatment, singing songs and holding up signs
wishing him a speedy recovery.
President Jacob Zuma visited Mandela at the hospital and
said he was making steady progress.
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