FACTBOX: Tributes for Mandela's 90th birthday
(Reuters) - Tributes poured in on Friday for the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, an international symbol of reconciliation and forgiveness. Here are a selection:
NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU:
"How blessed we have been. He has become the most admired statesman in the world, an icon of forgiveness and reconciliation, a moral colossus."
SOUTH AFRICA'S LAST WHITE PRESIDENT, F.W. DE KLERK, WHO
NEGOTIATED THE END OF APARTHEID RULE:
"He was a hard, sometimes remorseless, negotiating partner and our relationship was often severely strained ... Now he and I are both retired from active politics and I am honored to be able to call him my friend."
GRACA MACHEL, MANDELA'S THIRD WIFE:
"I'm happy that in the sunset years of his life, I'm there for him. And of course, he's there for me too ... Madiba (Mandela's clan name) offers that sense of dignity, the sense of perseverance in what is good, what is just."
BARBARA PHOFO, JOHANNESBURG STUDENT:
"He gave us freedom. If it wasn't for him we would have not been where we are. Because of you, now I can walk freely. I can go to any school that I want and find a job of my own."
MPONDOMISE NDZAMBO, PRINCIPAL OF A SCHOOL IN QUNU WHERE
MANDELA GREW UP:
"He suffered a lot trying to get this South Africa to be free and fair. I think he is a great man."
NADINE GORDIMER, NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE:
"Your love of your country, our country, pursued for human freedom at enormous personal cost of suffering, has been and is the achievement, the consecration of your life."
SINGER YVONNE CHAKA CHAKA:
"When you are taught by him or shake his hand, it is as if you have been touched by an angel."
FORMER PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION LEADER TONY LEON:
"You have graced this parliament. You have graced this country. You have graced humanity."
RULING AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS LEADER JACOB ZUMA:
"Long live the Madiba magic."
PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI:
"His life and work have served as an embodiment of what human beings should be, in themselves and to others."
STUDENT SAMANTHA MARTIN:
"What he went through and what he's achieved is inspirational but we don't have to deify him and make a martyr out of him. I think it's unnecessary."
(Additional reporting by Phakamisa Ndzamela)
