Mandela slows down

2004-05-30 14:03

Johannesburg - South Africa's most famous son, Nelson Mandela, will begin a new phase in his life next week, announcing that he is scaling back the busy schedule he has kept up since his historic 1990 release from jail.

Mandela, who turns 86 in July, is to make the announcement on Tuesday at the headquarters of his foundation in Johannesburg, a reliable source confirmed this week.

The anti-apartheid hero who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 will say "he is cutting down on his public engagements and passing on a greater role to the heads" of three foundations that bear his name, said the source who asked not to be named.

The past month brought Mandela into the spotlight again as the star of the South African delegation that travelled to Zurich to win the bid to host the 2010 World Cup.

He also delivered a swansong address to parliament on May 10, exactly ten years after he was sworn in to the presidency and launched South Africa on the path to nation-building after nearly 50 years of white minority rule.

Smuts Ngonayama, spokesperson for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which Mandela joined early on in life and which still looks to him for both inspiration and guidance, said Mandela's rest was well-earned.

"The ANC welcomes the position that Mr Mandela is taking ... We still need him in our midst and anything that can help him strengthen his health is welcomed by us," Ngonayama told AFP.

Mandela has easily been South Africa's best ambassador. His heroic struggle against apartheid, his wit - often self-deprecatory - and his easygoing charm have won over millions across the world.

Scaling down activities

At the same time, he has not hesitated to lash out against what he sees as wrong, and has launched a blistering attack on US President George W Bush over the war in Iraq.

Although a euphoric Mandela declared after South Africa won the World Cup bid that he felt "like a young man of 15", he also signalled that he would be slowing down.

In Geneva, when a South African television journalist asked him "Mr Mandela, what will you be doing now?" he replied: "I am going home now. I may not have many years to live. I have been told to scale down my activities by the end of the month."

From Switzerland, he went on to Spain to attend the nuptials of Prince Felipe and former journalist Letizia Ortiz.

When he returned last Monday, Mandela met with flamoyant American boxing promoter Don King the same afternoon and has since had some public engagements.

In the years after his release from serving 27 years in jail, and especially after becoming president, Mandela maintained a hectic pace travelling widely throughout the country and abroad.

He kept up the rigorous schedule, helping to intervene in trouble spots the world over.

- AFP