Qunu: 

Shoulder to lean on: Nelson Mandela with his wife Graca Machel, at their home in Qunu, South Africa, yesterday. pic/ap

Graca Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, says the former South African president was a lonely person when she met him first.

In an interview to Al Jazeera to mark Mandela's 90th birthday yesterday, Machel, Mandela's third wife, said their coming together helped ease each other's lonelines. Mandela led South Africa's struggle against racial apartheid for which he was imprisoned for 27 years.

She said, "Madiba (Mandela) was a lonely person when I met him. He had the world in his hands. But at the end of the day, after the public meetings etc, he would go home and he would be alone. After 27 years in jail what he was longing mostly, it was not only the glory of a political life but it was to have a family life. And if I can say in a very modest way, that's what I give him back. And of course, he's there for me too."

Machel, who had become a widow in 1986 after the death of Mozambiquan President Samora Machel in an air crash, said that Mandela had helped her get over her own grieving.

Yesterday also marks the couple's 10th wedding anniversary, and Machel commented on what her husband had given to the world.

"Madiba offers that sense of dignity, the sense of perseverance in what is good, what is just, what is the protection of the most vulnerable." However, she said that he was no living saint. "He also gets angry. He is somehow stubborn... He made mistakes in life. Towards his family, his friends. He made mistakes even in political decisions."

Michel said that Mandela is venerated because "the world needs symbols".


Mandela's birthday message: Rich should help the poor

QUNU: Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday by calling on the wealthy to share with the poor and wishing that he had been able to spend more time with his family during the long anti-apartheid struggle.

In an interview at his home, the icon was asked if he had a message for the world.
"There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty," Mandela said.