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Low profile birthday for Madiba
07/07/2005 15:03 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Former president Nelson Mandela will not have a high profile birthday this year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Thursday.
Chief executive John Samuel said Mandela's 87th birthday celebrations would focus on talks and lectures presented by international guest speakers.
"This is a side of Mr Mandela that we want to continue, not just the glitz and glamour," Samuel told reporters at the foundation's head office in Houghton, Johannesburg.
He said the highlight of the celebrations, which would start on July 11, was the Nelson Mandela annual lecture presented by 2004 Nobel peace prize winner, environmentalist Wangari Maathai.
He said speakers from the 2003 and 2004 lectures, former US president Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, would also be present at this year's lecture.
Clinton and Tutu would be part of a panel that would interact with the public allowing them to ask questions.
Another highlight of the celebrations would be the Nelson Mandela Challenge which would see the Springbok rugby team playing against Australia at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg.
SA Rugby Union president Brian van Rooyen said the Springbok team would wear jerseys displaying Mandela's prison number - 46664 - and the number would also be painted on the rugby field to raise awareness about HIV/Aids.
Mandela's spokesperson Zelda le Grange said Madiba would spend his birthday on July 18 with his family at his home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
She said it would be a private celebration and the media would not be allowed in.
The celebrations end on the July 23.
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