Frank Meintijies, a Mandela Day co-ordinator, urged his countrymen to engage in something that was different from their ordinary lives.
"Step out of your comfort zone and go to an area you've never been to before to make a contribution," he said.
Sir Alex Ferguson, who is also visiting South Africa with Manchester United for a match against Ajax Cape Town, made a surprise appearance on national television to sing happy birthday and cut a cake.
Messages of congratulations to the anti-apartheid activist flooded in from around the world. Among them was one from Barack Obama, the US President, and his wife Michelle, who visited Mr Mandela with her daughters during a tour of South Africa last year.
The pair wished Mr Mandela a happy birthday and paid tribute to his "one of unbreakable will, unwavering integrity, and abiding humility".
"By any measure," the statement read, "Nelson Mandela has changed the arc of history, transforming his country, continent, and the world."
Mr Mandela, who at 94 is inevitably frail and rarely seen in public these days, will celebrate his birthday at his rural home of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, where he now lives permanently.
At 4pm (3pm UK time), he is expected to host a birthday lunch - and demonstrated his continued desire to be inclusive, or mischievous, by inviting the expelled ANC youth leader Julius Malema.
Other guests include Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, who last week suggested he would challenge President Jacob Zuma who will seeek a second term in office at December's ANC elective conference, and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, who backed Mr Malema during the disciplinary process.
Among the members of Mr Mandela's large family who are attending the lunch are his former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and her children and grandchildren, his current wife, Graça Machel, and his grandchildren from his first wife Evelyn, including ANC MP and traditional chief Mandla Mandela.
President Jacob Zuma is due to drop in on Mr Mandela to wish him a happy birthday this morning before heading to China where he is due to meet President Hu Jintao.
Ndileka Mandela, Mr Mandela's first grandchild from his first marriage, said the family would wish him happy birthday in the morning before leaving to do community work.
“Our 67 minutes is a way of giving back to him and that is our birthday gift to him," she said.
For lunch, she said, they would be enjoying traditional food cooked by the former president's beloved chef Xoliswa Ndoyiya, including samp, a ground corn stew, and tripe, an African favourite. "The big lunch will be at 4pm where we will present him with a cake,” she said.
A survey of young South Africans this week found that Nelson Mandela was still viewed by most as the greatest leader of all time, gaining 71.6 percent of the votes compared to seven percent for Barack Obama, 6.7 percent for Martin Luther King and 3.8 percent for Gandhi.
Asked who had been the best South African president since democracy, 84 percent of respondents answered Nelson Mandela, seven percent said Thabo Mbeki and four percent voted for President Jacob Zuma.
Sixty percent of respondents said the African National Congress had not stayed true to Mandela's dream for South Africa's future. Black respondents were more sympathetic, with 45 percent feeling that the ANC was indeed charting his course, but 80 percent of Indian, 76 percent of white and 73 percent of coloured South Africans felt that they were not.
The Pondering Panda survey interviewed 4,500 South Africans aged 18 to 34 via cellphone last week.
"Step out of your comfort zone and go to an area you've never been to before to make a contribution," he said.
Sir Alex Ferguson, who is also visiting South Africa with Manchester United for a match against Ajax Cape Town, made a surprise appearance on national television to sing happy birthday and cut a cake.
Messages of congratulations to the anti-apartheid activist flooded in from around the world. Among them was one from Barack Obama, the US President, and his wife Michelle, who visited Mr Mandela with her daughters during a tour of South Africa last year.
The pair wished Mr Mandela a happy birthday and paid tribute to his "one of unbreakable will, unwavering integrity, and abiding humility".
"By any measure," the statement read, "Nelson Mandela has changed the arc of history, transforming his country, continent, and the world."
Mr Mandela, who at 94 is inevitably frail and rarely seen in public these days, will celebrate his birthday at his rural home of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, where he now lives permanently.
At 4pm (3pm UK time), he is expected to host a birthday lunch - and demonstrated his continued desire to be inclusive, or mischievous, by inviting the expelled ANC youth leader Julius Malema.
Other guests include Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, who last week suggested he would challenge President Jacob Zuma who will seeek a second term in office at December's ANC elective conference, and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, who backed Mr Malema during the disciplinary process.
Among the members of Mr Mandela's large family who are attending the lunch are his former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and her children and grandchildren, his current wife, Graça Machel, and his grandchildren from his first wife Evelyn, including ANC MP and traditional chief Mandla Mandela.
President Jacob Zuma is due to drop in on Mr Mandela to wish him a happy birthday this morning before heading to China where he is due to meet President Hu Jintao.
Ndileka Mandela, Mr Mandela's first grandchild from his first marriage, said the family would wish him happy birthday in the morning before leaving to do community work.
“Our 67 minutes is a way of giving back to him and that is our birthday gift to him," she said.
For lunch, she said, they would be enjoying traditional food cooked by the former president's beloved chef Xoliswa Ndoyiya, including samp, a ground corn stew, and tripe, an African favourite. "The big lunch will be at 4pm where we will present him with a cake,” she said.
A survey of young South Africans this week found that Nelson Mandela was still viewed by most as the greatest leader of all time, gaining 71.6 percent of the votes compared to seven percent for Barack Obama, 6.7 percent for Martin Luther King and 3.8 percent for Gandhi.
Asked who had been the best South African president since democracy, 84 percent of respondents answered Nelson Mandela, seven percent said Thabo Mbeki and four percent voted for President Jacob Zuma.
Sixty percent of respondents said the African National Congress had not stayed true to Mandela's dream for South Africa's future. Black respondents were more sympathetic, with 45 percent feeling that the ANC was indeed charting his course, but 80 percent of Indian, 76 percent of white and 73 percent of coloured South Africans felt that they were not.
The Pondering Panda survey interviewed 4,500 South Africans aged 18 to 34 via cellphone last week.