By AFPMore by this AuthorJOHANNESBURGFormer US President Barack Obama will deliver the annual Nelson Mandela memorial lecture at a 4,000-capacity arena in Johannesburg in July, South African organisers announced on Monday. Obama, who met with Mandela in 2005 and who made an emotional address at his funeral, will speak at the lecture marking 100 years since the anti-apartheid icon was born. "President Barack Obama — we will be looking forward to hosting him as he will be addressing this esteemed Nelson Mandela annual lecture," Sello Hatang, head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said. In his funeral address, Obama said Mandela "makes me want to be a better man" and hailed him as "the last great liberator of the 20th century". Former Nelson Mandela lecture speakers include Bill Clinton, Thabo Mbeki, Kofi Annan, Bill Gates and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Source: Daily Nation April 23, 2018 12:45 UTC