Nelson Mandela, who was instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa and rose from prisoner to president, is celebrating his 90th birthday.

After a series of public appearances around the world over the past few weeks, he is expected to spend the day at his village home with his family.

Former President FW de Klerk has led tributes to the man who succeeded him.

Mr Mandela was jailed for 27 years as a member of the banned ANC before he was made the country's first black leader.

Since stepping down as president in 1999, Mr Mandela has become South Africa's highest-profile ambassador, campaigning against HIV/Aids and helping to secure his country's right to host the 2010 football World Cup.

In 2004, at the age of 85, Mr Mandela retired from public life to spend more time with his family and friends and engage in "quiet reflection".

Correspondents say the birthday event in his home village of Qunu in south eastern South Africa was supposed to have been a quiet affair.

However there are now a variety of events planned including a local football festival, a concert and a dinner for 500 guests on Saturday.

Legacy

Mr de Klerk, who was awarded 1993 Nobel Peace Prize along with Mr Mandela, described him as one of the greatest figures of the 20th Century.

"After his inauguration, Nelson Mandela used his personal charm to promote reconciliation and to mould our widely diverse communities into an emerging multicultural nation," the last president of the apartheid era told reporters on Thursday.

"This, I believe, will be seen as his greatest legacy."

Friday also marks 10 years since Mr Mandela married his third wife, Graca Machel, who paid tribute on CNN:

"He is simply a wonderful husband... and we enjoy every single day as if it is the last day.

"When we married we didn't know we'd be given 10 years together. We have been very lucky."

Gardeners have been mowing the lawn outside the museum honouring Mr Mandela in Qunu and new tarmac has been laid on the road outside his house.

A school choir has created a song especially for him.

"We are very excited," Mpondomise Ndzambo, principal of the Nkalane Junior Secondary School, told the Associated Press news agency.

"Usually these celebrations are done in Johannesburg, so this is a way of being part of it."

Mr Mandela raised funds to develop the school out of its original mud buildings and used to be a frequent visitor.

'True icon'

Many of those who have worked with Nelson Mandela and had a close friendship with him over the years say that behind the adulation he inspires there is a very human and often extremely private figure, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports.

Fellow Robben Island prisoner Mac Maharaj told our correspondent Mr Mandela was truly an icon.

He reduced a veteran white police officer to tears on his inauguration day when he walked over to him, shook his hand and told him "today you have become our police".

But Mr Maharaj argues that the event that sheds most light on Nelson Mandela's character was the killing of the popular ANC leader Chris Hani in 1993.

Mr Maharaj believes that if Nelson Mandela had called for an insurrection in response it would have been unstoppable but, instead, he went on television to call for calm and commitment to democracy.


Source: BBC