Madiba's magic is fading

It was in 2009 that the call to do 67 minutes for Mandela on the great man's birthday, 18 July, first sounded.

- KEVIN RITCHIE

It was in 2009 that the call to do 67 minutes for Mandela on the great man's birthday, 18 July, first sounded. It seemed a bizarre number, hardly long enough to paint a classroom, much less tend a food garden but perfect if you were packing food – or posing for a pic in the local newspaper. And there was plenty of that.

Mandela Day became the bane of every newspaper editor and news editor in the country, from the big mainstream dailies to the knock-and-drops, with secretaries and PRs demanding coverage. It was ubiquitous.