By Hassan Isilow
JOHANNESBURG (AA) – South Africans united Wednesday to give 67 minutes of their time to help the less fortunate as part of the International Nelson Mandela Day in tribute to the late anti-apartheid icon.
Deputy President David Mabuza spent his 67 minutes at a local high school to share with students the teachings of Mandela and warn students of the dangers of substance abuse.
“I distributed old clothing and blankets to homeless people,’’ Nuru Mohamed, a Pretoria resident told Anadolu Agency.
South Africa is currently in the middle of the winter season and Mohamed believes his donation will be put to better use.
Mandela taught South Africans and the world to share with the less fortunate and reconciliation between white and black citizens, among other things.
International Nelson Mandela Day, which was officially endorsed by the United Nations in 2009, is commemorated on July 18, his birthday.
Mandela was South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994 — an office he held for five years.
He is referred to by many South Africans as “father of the nation ” after having spent 27 years in prison for resisting the country's white minority rule, known as apartheid.
Mandela, who died in December 2013, would have turned 100 years today.
