South Africa sings Happy Birthday to Nelson Mandela

Around 12m school children around South Africa sang Happy Birthday simultaneously to their iconic former president Nelson Mandela, who turns 94 today.

They were joined in the 8am singalong by people calling into radio stations, walking out onto the street and standing up in cafes and restaurants.

"We are here to celebrate the birthday of a very important person, a person who has liberated us from apartheid," Paul Ramela, principal at a primary school in Soweto, told his students. "Mandela spent 67 years of his life to improve the lives of other people. He has done so much for all of us."

The gesture was one of many which South Africans are expected to perform throughout the day to honour their former president, who came to power following the end of apartheid in 1994.

July 18 is marked as International Nelson Mandela Day, a UN-backed event, when people around the world but particularly in South Africa are asked to spend 67 minutes of their time on this day to helping their fellow people in recognition of Mr Mandela's 67 years of public service.

Some spent their time making sandwiches or muffins to hand out in schools or to the homeless, others planted trees, painted nurseries and old age homes, and cleaned their communities of litter and graffiti.

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