In 2002, when he gave his annual Christmas party for children in his home village of Qunu in the impoverished southeast, more than 20,000 children turned up – some trekking for two or three days – and pandemonium erupted.
Thousands of children and adults stampeded, with three needing hospital treatment, and security men had to cut down fences to prevent kids from being crushed.
American talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey was present, carrying thousands of black dolls for the girls and soccer balls for the boys.
Her security detail swung into action and assisted in moving many of the children out of harm’s way.
Mandela’s empathy for individuals often came at the most unlikely moments.
He once interrupted a meeting to ask after the health of a heavily pregnant journalist, tapping her swollen belly gently with his big boxer’s hands and asking her when the baby was due.
He was also adept at poking fun at himself, saying in 2000: “My bosses always say that I have had 27 years in prison to loaf. It is now time to do some catching up”.
In 1998, he declared: “My greatest regret in life is that I never became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world”.
And when South Africa narrowly lost its bid for the 2006 World soccer cup he said: “At least we have the right to get drunk… next time we will win”. He was right.
Roelf Meyer, one of the apartheid regime’s negotiators on the transition to democracy, said his eyes opened to Mandela’s charisma shortly after his liberation from jail in 1990 when dozens of young white soldiers queued up to shake the hand of the former “terrorist”.
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