18 Jul 2013

Nelson Mandela turns 95

8:40 pm on 18 July 2013

Nelson Mandela is spending his 95th birthday in hospital in Pretoria, as events take place around the world and in South Africa in his honour.

The former president and anti-apartheid leader has been in hospital with a lung infection since 8 June.

South Africans have been urged to mark his 67 years of public service with 67 minutes of charitable acts.

Mr Mandela's birthday is also Nelson Mandela International Day, a day declared by the United Nations to recognise the Nobel Prize winner's contribution to reconciliation, the BBC reports.

Mr Mandela's daughter, Zindzi, said on Wednesday he had made "dramatic progress", and that she had found him watching television with headphones on and communicating with his eyes and hands when she visited him this week.

"I should think he will be going home anytime soon,'' she told the UK's Sky News television.

The former statesman is revered across the world for his role in ending apartheid in South Africa. He went on to become the first black president in the country's first all-race elections in 1994.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) told the BBC on this Mandela Day homage was being paid to 95 years of "life well-lived", dedicated to the liberation of South Africans and people all over the world.

Poster project

The day kicked off with millions of school children across South Africa singing Happy Birthday to Mr Mandela.

To mark the former statesman's 67 years as a lawyer, activist, prisoner and president, volunteers were spending 67 minutes renovating schools and orphanages, cleaning hospitals and distributing food to the poor.

President Jacob Zuma plans to mark the occasion by overseeing the donation of houses to poor white families in the Pretoria area.

Well-wishers have been gathering outside Mr Mandela's hospital leaving messages of support.

Events are also taking place internationally, with an image of a large Mandela painting by South African artist Paul Blomkamp featured in New York's Times Square.