Former President Nelson Mandela will vote in Wednesday’s local government elections, his daughter Zenani Dlamini said on Friday.
“We take note of media speculation about whether and where Madiba will vote. Having spoken to him, we know that he will vote,” she said.
“We of course know where his historical allegiance lies, but casting his vote is a private matter, just as it is for any other citizen of our country.”
Dlamini did not say whether Mandela would be registering a special vote before Wednesday or casting his ballot on the day.
On Friday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said it would be releasing a quote by the elder statesman every day day until “Nelson Mandela International Day” on July 18 — Madiba’s birthday.
A book of his quotations titled Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Quotations Book will also be released in June.
Friday’s quote is: “It is never my custom to use words lightly. If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.”
He said this at the closing address of the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban, South Africa on July 14 2000.
The late Nkosi Johnson made the poignant opening speech at that conference at the age of 11, describing life with the virus. — Sapa
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