Use Your Phone to Wish Nelson Mandela a Charity Birthday Greeting

Millions of people from all corners of the globe are expected join the quest for a new world record of the most birthday wishes ever received by an individual in one day, when they call to wish former President Nelson Mandela a Happy Birthday on his 85th birthday today (18 July 2003).

Telkom South Africa is facilitating a phone-in campaign to set a Guinness Book World Record, and a portion of the proceedings from all Madiba's birthday wishes made on Telkom's two special numbers allocated for the campaign will go to the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

What a birthday gift for a man whose championing of children's rights was one of the highlights of his presidency and is continuing through the work of his Fund.

The phone-in number for the campaign is +27 126 263 352.

Birthday wishes on the lines are set to start pouring in with the official launch of the phone-in today.

Friday is D-Day for the campaign as the attempt to outdo the only existing Guinness World Record of birthday wishes sent by post reaches its peak.

The actual world record attempt starts from Friday morning (18 July 2003) at 00:01 till midnight, and the proceeds of the phone-in campaign will be handed over to the Nelson Mandela's Foundation at a function on Saturday. Driven by FoneWorx, one of Telkom's premium rate service providers, in conjunction with the SABC and their international media partners, the initiative is expected to generate millions of calls.

All the calls will terminate on Telkom's network. To manage the call traffic, Telkom has installed 100 primary rate ISDN lines, which can handle a total of 3000 calls simultaneously.

"The name Nelson Mandela is synonymous with the transformation of South Africa into a peaceful democracy. It is therefore fitting that we should participate in an initiative of this nature. As a model corporate citizen, Telkom also believes it should continually re-invest in the community that supports us, which is why we have so readily agreed to support this worthwhile cause, with children being the main beneficiaries," said Wally Beelders, Telkom's Managing Executive for International and Special Markets Services."

Posted to the site on 18th July 2003