South Africans celebrate Mandela’s birthday by helping others across the country
By APSunday, July 18, 2010
Mandela’s birthday celebrated with good deeds
PRETORIA, South Africa — South Africans are celebrating Nelson Mandela’s birthday by planting gardens, painting clinics and calling for unity.
Mandela, who turned 92 years old on Sunday, was spending the day with his family in Johannesburg. His wife went to an orphanage in Soweto to help plant a vegetable garden.
Mandela’s wife Graca Machel says Sunday is a day for people to say, “I can extend my goodness to other people.”
Mandela Day, inaugurated last year and falling on the anti-apartheid icon’s July 18 birthday, was conceived as an international day devoted to public service.
National police commissioner Nathi Mthethwa says that spirit drew him to a Pretoria township where anti-foreigner violence broke out two years ago. He urged the community to be peaceful and unified.
