Former US president Barack Obama is set to deliver the annual Nelson Mandela lecture at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg in front of a crowd of 9 000.
Obama who is expected to speak in 30 minutes time, was greeted with loud cheers when he arrived the Wanderes Stadium.
Mandela died in 2013, but his status as a global icon is undiminished, and his struggle against Apartheid made him a prisoner for 27 years.
While the two men met once, briefly in 2005, Obama gave the eulogy at Mandela’s funeral, where he said the former South African President: “makes me want to be a better man”
Obama’s speech comes on the eve of “Mandela’s 100” anniversary.
The “Mandela 100” anniversary has triggered a bout of memories and tributes to the late anti-apartheid leader, as well as a debate over his legacy and South Africa’s fate since he stepped down in 1999.