Johannesburg Celebrates Madiba’s 91st Birthday in Fine Style

Residents of the City of Gold turned out in their masses to celebrate the birthday of the city’s most famous icon, Nelson Mandela. Madiba welcomed family and friends at his home in Houghton, including President Jacob Zuma, Advocate George Bizos, former wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela and his grandson, Chief Mandla Mandela.
As his cake was cut, thousands of people were gathering at Mary Fitzgerald Square in the Newtown precinct in downtown Johannesburg. Under the banner Working Together for the Common Good of Our Nation, celebrants sang and danced and waved placards of birthday greetings. Deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, Chief Mandla Mandela, Mathole motshekga, Denis Goldberg and arts and culture minister, Lulu Xingwana, cut the birthday cake while the crowd sang and danced.
“The very act of helping set off this magnanimous spirit of steadfast service to humanity gives meaning to the 67 years that Madiba gave to the struggle for a better managed and humane world,” Motlanthe said.
“We should all regard the 67 minutes as the beginning of a much longer effort. This must become the routine of our daily toil for the good of all.”