Everyone has to be a Nelson Mandela: Manuel

Every person must remember the contribution former president Nelson Mandela has made to the country, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel said on Thursday.

"I think that is what is important to remember," he said in Johannesburg.

"We must carry forward his legacy... Everyone has to be a Nelson Mandela."

Whatever Madiba had worked to achieve, including democracy, was a success.

Manuel said Mandela's physical presence was only one part of it.

"We... understand that his physical presence is only one part of it... his spiritual presence [must] live on," he said.

The elderly statesman, 94, is in a critical condition in a Pretoria hospital, where he was admitted with a recurring lung infection on June 8.