Johannesburg: Millions of children around the country are singing 'Happy Birthday' to former South African President Nelson Mandela, to celebrate his 93rd birthday.
More than 12 million school pupils sang a special version of the song, written for the anti-apartheid leader, before lessons began Monday.
Mandela Day, inaugurated in 2009 and falling on the anti-apartheid icon's July 18 birthday, was conceived as an international day devoted to public service.
People around the world have been asked to mark the occasion by devoting 67 minutes of their time to work in their local community, one minute for every year of Mandela's public service.
Mandela is expected to spend the day with his family in his home village of Qunu in southern South Africa.
On-screen portrayal
Here's tabloid!'s favourite on-screen portrayals of Mandela:
Danny Glover in Mandela (1987)
"I clawed and scratched to do Mandela," Glover says of the film that saw him star opposite Alfre Woodard as Winnie Madikizela Mandela. "I was reading Mandela when I was 20 years old, and making it part of my own conscience." This informed his sympathetic characterisation, and Glover reaped the rewards - he was nominated for an Emmy and received his first NAACP Image Award for the biopic.
Sidney Poitier in Mandela and De Klerk (1997)
With this performance, Poitier helped the world understand the ex-inmate who became the first president of a democratic South Africa. The film shed light on the event surrounding Mandela's incarceration, and, more critically, his release. Poitier was nominated for an Emmy, Image Award and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Dennis Haysbert in Goodbye Bafana (2007)
Based on the memoirs of one of Mandela's prison guards, Haysbert plays a supporting role in a film that looks at the changing attitudes of one character. Oft criticised for his accent, Haysbert's nuanced performance nonetheless supported the film's Golden Bear nomination and went some way to illustrating Mandela's influence.
Morgan Freeman in Invictus (2009)
Mandela himself has said that only Freeman can play him, and Freeman doesn't disappoint. Freeman managed to capture Madiba's subtleties - his charisma, humour and the weight of the task he set himself in Clint Eastwood's film. The friendship between Freeman and Mandela is invaluable, for it allows the actor to perfect (for the most part) the statesman's accent and the rhythm of his speech. There's hardly an award Freeman wasn't nominated for (including the Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild), suitably supported by Matt Damon as Springbok captain Francois Pienaa.
— By Eduan Maggo, Copy Editor
