Card. Napier on Mandela's message

The great icon of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, Nelson Mandela turns 93 Monday and as a special birthday present he has asked people around the world to give 67 minutes of their time to do something for others.

Nelson Mandela International Day was inaugurated in 2009 on Mandela’s birthday, building on his life and on his legacy and is celebrated across the world on July 18, the day Madiba himself celebrates his birthday. He became South Africa's first black president after spending 27 years in prison for his fight against apartheid. He was awarded a Nobel peace prize for his efforts.

Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Archbishop of Durban, told Linda Bordoni “I think Nelson Mandela Day is the way South Africa and the whole world acknowledges the great personal sacrifice that a man made not only for his own countrymen but for all those who suffered oppression of any kind”.

He adds that the initiative of doing good for others is part of Madiba’s legacy to the wider world; “That has been the essence of Mandela Day right from the beginning and it comes from the fact that for 67 years of his life that’s what Mandela was engaged in. He was engaged in working for the rights of others and so he is asking us to do the same to thin of others before we think of ourselves. I think at this time in our history that is something that is exceptionally necessary, because we have got a terrible selfish streak, in some people thinking only of themselves, their own narrow circle or their own party and if that message of Mandela gets through I think it will make a big difference to our party”. Listen: