Johannesburg - Thousands of South African prison inmates will be released early to mark the 80th birthday of the former political prisoner, President Nelson Mandela.
The government yesterday announced that all prisoners would benefit from a six-month remission of sentence for the South African President's birthday today. Some 9,000 prisoners with less than six months still to serve walk free next week.
Meanwhile, his main political rival, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, sent President Mandela one of the most surprising of thousands of birthday messages: "I believe that never again will a nation see in one man the realisation of every hope and dream as they did in President Nelson Mandela," he said.
