South Africa has a new national holiday.
July 18 will now be known as Mandela Day, set aside to honor Nelson Mandela, the legendary freedom fighter, anti-Apartheid icon and the nation’s first democratically elected president.
The news was announced today by South African President Jacob Zuma in his first state of the nation address. Smiling and waving from he audience was Mandela himself, now age 90.
Zuma also promised to create 500,000 new jobs this year, a tall order in a country facing its worst recession in 17 years. He promised to create another 4 million jobs by 2014, but didn’t explain how.
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