When crises break out - the collapse of neighboring Zimbabwe, a crime wave at home, or violence against African immigrants over jobs and housing - South Africans expect to hear from Mandela.
"I want this great leader to come back," said Stephen Miller, a composer. "It's extraordinary nostalgia."
Mandela has given no interview in years.
Mandela will spend his birthday privately with family in Qunu, his boyhood village 1,000 km south of Johannesburg.
There, he built a replica of the house he was held in briefly after being moved off Robben Island, the desolate offshore prison where he spent most of his 27 years.
Mandela wrote in his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," that he chose to recreate the home because he knew it well and "would not have to wander at night looking for the kitchen."
(China Daily via agencies July 15, 2008)
