South Africans are being urged to mark the former president and anti-apartheid leader's 67 years of public service with 67 minutes of charitable acts. 

 

Mr Mandela, who is in critical but stable condition with a recurring¹ lung infection, entered hospital on 8 June.

 

President Jacob Zuma said his health was "steadily² improving".

 

"We are proud to call this international icon³ our own as South Africans and wish him good health," Mr Zuma said in a statement.

 

"We thank all our people for supporting Madiba throughout the hospitalisation with undying love and compassion," he said, referring to Mandela's clan⁴ name.

 

Mr Mandela's daughter, Zindzi, said on Wednesday he had made "dramatic progress", and that she had found him watching television with headphones on and communicating with his eyes and hands when she visited him this week.

 

"I should think he will be going home anytime soon,'' she told the UK's Sky News television.

 

Mr Mandela's birthday is also Nelson Mandela International Day, a day declared by the UN as a way to recognise the Nobel Prize winner's contribution to reconciliation⁵.

 

The former statesman is revered⁶ across the world for his role in ending apartheid in South Africa. He went on to become the first black president in the country's first all-race elections in 1994.

 

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said that on this Mandela Day homage⁷ was being paid to 95 years of "life well-lived", dedicated⁸ to the liberation of South Africans and people all over the world.

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