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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Nelson Mandela celebrates 93rd birthday


SOUTH Africans and folks round the world are celebrating Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday with songs and voluntary work.

Mandela, who is frail, spent the day together with his family in his home village of Qunu in South Africa's rural jap Cape.

Millions of South African college youngsters simultaneously sang a special birthday song to Mandela.

The song, Happy Birthday Tata Madiba, was specially composed for Mandela's 93rd birthday and was sung in class assemblies across the country.

It was hoped the target of twelve.4 million schoolchildren singing the song would set a brand new world record for the amount of individuals singing to a private at an equivalent time. The song was sung at township colleges and rural colleges, public colleges and personal colleges across the country.

For the third year the Mandela foundation has urged folks to try to to sixty seven minutes of voluntary work nowadays - to represent the sixty seven years that Mandela dedicated to South Africa's political struggle against apartheid.

"The best method we are able to thank Nelson Mandela for his work is by taking action for others and provoking modification," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who endorsed the decision.

South African corporations, charities and celebrities have all announced plans for voluntary work they're going to do nowadays.

Mandela has appeared increasingly frail since he retired from public life in 2004. He has been receiving round-the-clock medical care at home following his unharness from hospital in January, where he was treated for an acute respiratory infection, says the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Johannesburg.

Known to South Africans by his clan name Madiba, Mr Mandela has not appeared at a public engagement since the closing ceremony of the soccer World Cup in July 2010.

US President Barack Obama said Mandela's life and legacy exemplified "wisdom, strength and grace".

Mandela retired as South Africa's president in 1999 when serving one term, returning to Thabo Mbeki.

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