Bill Gates’s embattled Microsoft was highly praised on Thursday by none other than former president Nelson Mandela who said he is proud to be associated with the software giant.
“It is undoubtedly the flagship of the private sector inside and outside South Africa,” Mandela said.
Mandela was touring Johannesburg creches and pre-schools to encourage private sector investment in development, an activity he has pursued tirelessly since his retirement in June.
He said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has taken a personal interest in South Africa and has donated money towards the building of schools and clinics in the Eastern Cape province, one of the country’s poorest. Gates has also donated money to minorities in the United States for education, among other things, Mandela said.
Microsoft was on Friday found guilty by a US judge of using its monopoly of personal computer operating systems to raise prices and systematically stifle innovation and competition.
Barring an out-of-court settlement, the judge will now draft his legal conclusions as to whether Microsoft has violated anti-trust law.
A legal verdict against the company will require the court to impose remedies aimed at restoring competition to the market, a move that analysts say could lead to the breakup of Microsoft.