Many South Africans view Mandela as far from ordinary.
"He's a hero," said Johnson Ibe, 29.
"He saved the country," said Spiros Micouris, 58.
"He's the greatest man that ever lived in this country and one of the best leaders the world has ever seen," said Waheed Arai, 34.
His stature harks back to John F. Kennedy or Winston Churchill, but few politicians in this more cynical era have achieved his level of adulation, said Tom Lodge, head of the political science department of the University of the Witwatersrand.
He projects a mixture of heroism, charisma, warmth and self-deprecating humor that appeals as much to poor, black farmworkers as it does to wealthy, white businessmen, Lodge said.
That rapport is no accident, Lodge said.
"Sometimes it isn't sufficiently appreciated what a skilled performer Mandela has been throughout his political career," he said. "He's a very, very clever man."
But he is far from perfect.
His government was accused of cronyism and paying insufficient attention to the burgeoning AIDS crisis, and he has been known to be hot-tempered and stubborn.
Most of the birthday editorials, which appeared in every major South African newspaper Friday, briefly mentioned that Mandela did have his flaws.
Then they returned to their effusive praise.
"Through the ages, the human race has had its icons -- men and women who rose above ordinariness to inspire their generations," The Mail and Guardian weekly said Friday. "In our generation, the gods bequeathed us Nelson Mandela."
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