South Africans spent 67 minutes doing charity work on Tuesday to mark Nelson Mandela's 67 years of political activism.
The anti-apartheid hero turns 94 on Wednesday.
In anticipation of his birthday, residents in Orange Farm built a home with the group Habitat for Humanity.
One volunteer said Madiba, as he's known in South Africa, changed the way citizens treated each other.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) VOLUNTEER, JACKIE JANUARY, SAYING:
"I just want to cry when I think about Madiba and what he means to me and to fellow South Africans and the difference that he made in our lives, in the media, in our houses and how we care for people close to us and for strangers and that is what is great about Madiba."
Although he stepped down at the end of his first term in office in 1999, South Africa's first black president still occupies a central position in the psyche of the country.
Julie Noce, Reuters