While lockdown restrictions remain in place, and it’s not possible to gather in large groups, Mandela Day events are taking place virtually.

IOL reports that the official Mandela Day team has asked South Africans to focus their altruistic efforts around the challenges of the Covid-19 outbreak.South Africans have been encouraged to be selfless, and to live in the late former president’s shoes for 67 minutes.

The Mandela Day statement reads: We call on you to be an active citizen in your community, individually or as part of one of the millions of groups getting together to start initiatives around delivering food parcels, making masks and protective gear, teaching online or making donations towards these efforts.

Meanwhile News24 reports that this year’s Mandela Day lecture would be dedicated to Mandela’s late daughter, Zindzi. Zindzi Mandela passed away this week, after a coronavirus infection. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres was to deliver the virtual lecture, hosted live by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, from Johannesburg and the United Nations in New York.

Umm Muhammed Umar