World leaders jetting in to Jozi for Mandela lecture

A throng of global leaders and heads of state are expected to attend the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg next week.

Apart from former US president Barack Obama‚ who will deliver the annual lecture‚ members of "The Elders" – a group of public figures and former heads of state brought together by Madiba in 2007 – will also be in attendance.

Some of the key attendees are former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon‚ Indian activist Ela Bhatt‚ former World Health Organisation director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland; and Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former US president Jimmy Carter.

Graca Machel‚ Mandela’s widow and an international activist for women’s and children’s rights‚ will also be attending alongside Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

The event will also play host to a number of current and former state presidents. Cape Verde president Jorge Carlos de Almeida Fonseca and Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi are expected to be in attendance‚ along with former Brazilian president Fernando Cardoso‚ former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos and former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo.

The lecture will take place at Wanderers stadium in Illovo on Tuesday July 17