South Africa sings Happy Birthday to Nelson Mandela

Around 12m school children around South Africa sang Happy Birthday simultaneously to their iconic former president Nelson Mandela, who turns 94 today.

Children sing happy birthday in honour of former South African President Nelson Mandela during celebrations for Mandela's birthday in Mvezo, South Africa 

They were joined in the 8am singalong by people calling into radio stations, walking out onto the street and standing up in cafes and restaurants.

"We are here to celebrate the birthday of a very important person, a person who has liberated us from apartheid," Paul Ramela, principal at a primary school in Soweto, told his students. "Mandela spent 67 years of his life to improve the lives of other people. He has done so much for all of us."

The gesture was one of many which South Africans are expected to perform throughout the day to honour their former president, who came to power following the end of apartheid in 1994.

July 18 is marked as International Nelson Mandela Day, a UN-backed event, when people around the world but particularly in South Africa are asked to spend 67 minutes of their time on this day to helping their fellow people in recognition of Mr Mandela's 67 years of public service.

Some spent their time making sandwiches or muffins to hand out in schools or to the homeless, others planted trees, painted nurseries and old age homes, and cleaned their communities of litter and graffiti.

Frank Meintijies, a Mandela Day co-ordinator, urged his countrymen to engage in something that was different from their ordinary lives.

"Step out of your comfort zone and go to an area you've never been to before to make a contribution," he said.

Sir Alex Ferguson, who is also visiting South Africa with Manchester United for a match against Ajax Cape
Town, made a surprise appearance on national television to sing happy birthday and cut a cake.

Messages of congratulations to the anti-apartheid activist flooded in from around the world. Among them was one from Barack Obama, the US President, and his wife Michelle, who visited Mr Mandela with her daughters during a tour of South Africa last year.

The pair wished Mr Mandela a happy birthday and paid tribute to his "one of unbreakable will, unwavering integrity, and abiding humility".

"By any measure," the statement read, "Nelson Mandela has changed the arc of history, transforming his country, continent, and the world."

Mr Mandela, who at 94 is inevitably frail and rarely seen in public these days, will celebrate his birthday at his rural home of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, where he now lives permanently.

At 4pm (3pm UK time), he is expected to host a birthday lunch - and demonstrated his continued desire to be inclusive, or mischievous, by inviting the expelled ANC youth leader Julius Malema.

We wish him happy birthday!!!