South Africans mark Mandela's birthday

(July 19, 2010) A South African community once torn by anti-foreigner violence came together on Sunday in the spirit of Nelson Mandela to play a little soccer. The so-called “goodwill games” were among activities around the world marking Mandela Day, which falls on Mandela's July 18 birthday and was conceived as an international day devoted to public service. Community leaders in Atteridgeville organized the unity-building tournament of teams of South Africans, Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Somalis who all live in the poor, black neighbourhood on the western edge of South Africa's capital, Pretoria. Mandela, who turned 92 years old on Sunday and is largely retired from public life, spent the day with his family in Johannesburg. Early Sunday, his wife Graca Machel went to an orphanage in Soweto to help plant a vegetable garden. President Jacob Zuma and other government officials marked the day in Mandela's birthplace of Mvezo by planting trees and painting class rooms in that far southern region of the country that is among the poorest in South Africa. Mandela Day organizers in South Africa this year had called on citizens to, among other things, honour the anti-apartheid leader by devoting time to calming fears anti-foreigner sentiment could again erupt into widespread violence, as it did in Atteridgeville and across the country in 2008.