Mandela Day launched as anti-apartheid icon turns 91 here

Surrounded by family and anti-apartheid stalwarts at his home in Johannesburg, the increasingly frail elder statesman was showered with messages of goodwill from world leaders to ordinary South Africans.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led the international plaudits by describing Mandela as "a living embodiment of the highest values of the United Nations.

Nelson Mandela

"His commitment to a democratic, multi-racial South Africa, his steadfast pursuit of justice, his willingness to reconcile with those who persecuted him most -- these are just some of the hallmarks of a remarkable man," Ban said.

The charitable foundation of the former South African leader called on people around the world to do good deeds on Saturday as it launched an official day in Mandela's honour.

"Mandela Day is an annual celebration of Nelson Mandela?s life and a global call to action for

Nelson Mandela thinking

people to recognize their individual power to make an imprint and change the world around them," his foundation said.

The initiative received backing from senior UN figures.

"I warmly welcome the global campaign to recognize the birthday of Nelson Mandela, July 18, as an annual opportunity to celebrate this great man and the values and principles that he has come

Nelson Mandela

personify over the past seven decades," said president of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann.

"I hope that Mandela Day will eventually be celebrated as a United Nations international day to serve as an inspiration, in particularly to our young people, and as invitation to join forces in the ever-more complex and urgent campaigns against poverty, racism, ignorance and violence."

Nelson Mandela super

Celebrations were to be held in Mandela's honour from Johannesburg to New York, where Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was to join a glittering line-up led by Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.

It will be the first time France's 41-year-old first lady, a former model and musician, has performed in public since marrying President Nicolas Sarkozy in January 2008.

Nelson Mandela

Throughout the day there was a steady trickle of well-wishers through Mandela's home in Johannesburg's well-heeled northern suburb of Houghton, where a white marquee had been erected next to the house, behind tall security walls.