SOUTH AFRICA: Even living legends have to step down sometime. Adored at home and considered an icon of peace abroad, former South African president Nelson Mandela is pulling back from public life - or, as he termed it, "retiring from retirement".
Since leaving politics in 1999 Mandela has been caught up in a frantic whirl of meetings with world leaders, addressing conferences, negotiating peace deals and collecting awards. After giving so much, the 85-year old announced yesterday that he was taking something back - his time.
"Don't call me, I'll call you," he joked to those thinking of inviting him to future public engagements, during a press conference at one of the three charitable foundations that bear his name.
"I'm turning 86 in a few weeks' time and that is a longer life than most people are granted," he said. "I am confident that nobody here present today will accuse me of selfishness if I asked to spend time while I'm still in good health with my family, my friends and also with myself."
Famous for peacefully shepherding South Africa from the racist rule of apartheid to a black-led democracy, Mandela has become one of the world's most revered - and busy - public figures.
He receives 5,000 appearance requests every year, only a fraction of which he can accept. His engagements involve a punishing schedule of globe-trotting, sometimes flying in a private jet loaned by a Saudi prince.
Last November he organized a pop concert - featuring Bono, Beonce Knowles and other international stars - to raise funds for his favourite cause, the fight against HIV/Aids.
But apart from his charity work, Mandela has remained an influential international figure, whether leading efforts to mediate an end to the long-running war in Burundi or hectoring George Bush on his plans to invade Iraq. He considers Tony Blair and Fidel Castro as his friends. However, President Bush, stung by this criticism, pointedly ignored him during a visit to South Africa last year.
At home, Mandela criticised the confused Aids policies of his successor, Thabo Mbeki, and expressed regret at not doing more during his own term of office.
In recent months, aides worried about the heavy toll Mandela's schedule was taking, but denied press reports that his health was failing.
Last month, for example, Mandela travelled to the Caribbean to bolster South Africa's bid to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. After flying home briefly to bury his first wife, Evelyn, he continued to the World Cup meeting in Zurich, where his appearance is believed to have helped swing the decision South Africa's way.
"When I told one of my advisers a few months ago that I wanted to retire, he growled at me: 'You are retired.' If that is really the case then I should say I now announce that I am retiring from retirement," he said yesterday.
Known affectionately in South Africa by his clan name Madiba, Mandela said he wanted to work on the second volume of his autobiography - the first was titled The Long Walk to Freedom - and to have more time for "quiet reflection".
"I do not intend to hide away from the public, but henceforth I want to be in the position of calling you to ask whether I would be welcome, rather than being called upon to do things and participate in events," he said.
A natural leader and a consummate politician, Mandela was born into a royal family in the Transkei region in 1918. After training as a lawyer, he shot to national prominence as an anti-apartheid activist in the 1950s, alongside his law partner, Oliver Tambo.
In 1964 he was found guilty of attempting to overthrow the government, and sentenced to life imprisonment, 18 years of which he spent on Robben Island prison near Cape Town.
The long, solitary sentence informed the thinking that transformed South Africa on his release in 1990, but was, nonetheless, difficult. He once said: "In prison, you come face to face with time. There is nothing more terrifying."
After his release, Mandela was rarely out of the spotlight, although he was uncomfortable with the quasi-saintly adulation he received. "The impression you are a demi-god worries me. I wanted to be regarded just like an ordinary human being with virtues and vices," he told the BBC's David Dimbleby in a recent interview. Yesterday his friends, many of them former liberation struggle comrades, reacted to the news of his "second retirement" with a combination of regret and relief.
"I have such mixed feelings about this. It is almost like the end of an era," said Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Mac Maharaj, who spent 12 years with Mandela in Robben Island, said he believed Mandela had a genuine desire to sit back and reflect, if only the public would let him.
"We're all very sympathetic and really wish that he had the time," he told Reuters. "But at the same time all of us want a piece of him even now."