Mandela’s humanitarian work remembered with enormous blanket

Hundreds of South African Prisoners have crocheted a 7,000-square metre blanket in honour of late anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.

The enormous blanket, unveiled on Tuesday, depicts the face of South Africa’s former president and is made up of more than 3,000 smaller squares.

Revealed at the Zonderwater Prison outside South Africa’s capital Pretoria, the crocheted artwork is meant to mark the centenary of Mandela’s birthday on July 18.

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The project is spearheaded by 67 Blankets, a non-profit organisation that began crocheting blankets in honour of Nelson Mandela’s 67 years in service to improve the lives of South Africans.

Each year, South Africans mark Mandela’s birthday by dedicated 67 minutes of their time to a worthy cause.

“The idea of this day today is to show the whole world, that stitch by stitch we can put the world together into one for the ideals of Nelson Mandela,’’ said Caroline Steyn, founder of 67 Blankets.