South Africans came together on Thursday July 18, to spare 67 minutes for lending a helping hand to the less fortunate in their communities in honor of late President Nelson Mandela, it was gathered.
The International Nelson Mandela Day which is marked annually on July 18, was officially endorsed by the United Nations in 2009 to celebrate the global icon’s birthday for his service to humanity.
The UN encourages people across the world to do an act of kindness as the world marks 101st birthday of Mandela.
“I used my 67 minutes to help cleaning of an orphanage in Soweto today. I feel so happy that I have done an act of kindness in memory of Mandela,” Johannesburg resident Lerato Joy told Anadolu Agency.
According to the agency, others distributed blankets and jackets to help homeless South Africans keep warm in the middle of the winter season in South Africa.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of South Africa’s main opposition Party Democratic Alliance, said he spent his 67 minutes at a primary school in Cape Town where he read books to pupils, stressing the importance of education.
The great Icon, Madela, died in December 2013, and ever since, has been remembered as one of the most revered global statesman.
For President Cyril Ramaphosa , he will use his 67 minutes to visit a children’s hospital radio station in Cape Town where he will be interviewed by children.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation will use the day to support some local charities by providing them with food and nutrition.
Mandela taught South Africans and the world to share with the less fortunate and reconciled citizens, both white and black, at the end of apartheid era in 1994.
He preached reconciliation and did not take revenge against those who treated him harshly while in prison.
Mandela become South Africa's first democratically elected black president in 1994 -- an office he held for five years.
He is referred by many South Africans as “father of the nation” after spending 27 years in prison for resisting the country’s white minority rule, known as apartheid.
#AA
