Mandela on 90th birthday: Rich should help poor

[July 18, 2008]  QUNU, South Africa (AP) -- Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday Friday by calling on the wealthy to share with the less fortunate and wishing that he had been able to spend more time with his family during the anti-apartheid struggle.

In an interview at his home in rural southeastern South Africa, the anti-apartheid 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.

Sitting with his wife Graca Machel in a lounge of the large home he built in Qunu, Mandela said he was fortunate to have reached 90, but in the countryside and in the towns "poverty has gripped our people.

"If you are poor, you are not likely to live long," he said.

At one point, a granddaughter brought a bowl of flowers into the room and gave Mandela a birthday kiss. He was asked if he wished he had had more time with his family during a life spent fighting apartheid and then leading South Africa.

"I am sure for many people that is their wish," he said. "I also have that wish that I spent more time (with my family). But I don't regret it."

Mandela was imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against apartheid.

He was released in 1990 to lead negotiations that ended decades of racist white rule. He was elected president in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. He now campaigns against poverty, illiteracy and AIDS in Africa.

[Associated Press; By CELEAN JACOBSON]

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