Former president Nelson Mandela flew into the South African town of George on Friday to talk with local people about HIV/Aids issues ahead of the second star-studded 46664 Aids benefit concert, organised by his global fund-raising and awareness campaign.
International stars such as Annie Lennox, Queen with Paul Rodgers, Katie Melua and India.Arie are on the line-up for the concert on Saturday.
The concert is scheduled to take place on a fairway at the Fancourt Golf Estate in the sleepy southern Cape Town and will also feature some of South Africa’s most popular bands and singers.
More than 20 000 people are expected to attend the event, where Hollywood actor and rap artist Will Smith is scheduled to act as MC.
Smith is an ambassador for Mandela’s global Aids awareness and fund-raising campaign that uses Mandela’s former prison number, 46664, to spread the word about the disease.
Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her new band, Wicked Wisdom, are also expected to perform at the concert that organisers said will see on-stage collaborations between various artists.
The inaugural 46664 music event in the city of Cape Town about 15 months ago drew a stadium crowd of about 40 000 and a worldwide television audience of more than one billion people.
Similar concerts are planned for other parts of the country and around the world.
Next month, Spain will host a 46664 concert, followed by one in Norway in June, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation plans to commission musicians to tour rural parts of South Africa.
South Africa has one of the highest levels of HIV/Aids infection in the world. More than 20% of adult South Africans live with the virus, United Nations statistics show.
Mandela, who became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994 after serving 27 years in prison, began highlighting the plight of HIV/Aids victims when he stepped down in the late 1990s.
The 86-year-old anti-apartheid hero recently lost his eldest son, Makgatho Mandela, to the disease.
On Friday, Mandela toured the impoverished area of Pacaltsdorp outside George to spread the word about Aids prevention and care, promote the concert and provide its inhabitants with free concert tickets. — Sapa-DPA