Mandela 'survives' Bush Gaffe

21 September 2007

Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by US President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.

"It's out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bush's comments received worldwide coverage.

In a speech defending hi administration's Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussain's brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.

"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussain killed all the Mandelas," Bush said in Washington on Thursday.