Mahatma Gandhi on list of 100 greatest South Africans

Mahatma Gandhi on list of 100 greatest South Africans
Mahatma Gandhi is up against a pioneering surgeon, a golfer, a cleric and President Thabo Mbeki on a shortlist of nine people to find the second greatest South African of all time.

Former president Nelson Mandela was voted the top man by an overwhelming margin when the list of the greatest 100 South Africans was announced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation's SABC3 channel on Sunday.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the lawyer who was destined to become the Mahatma, was the only nominee in the top 100 who was not born in South Africa.

The role that Gandhi played in the freedom struggle in South Africa was highlighted by his selection as a finalist in the top ten. He also got more votes than other great South African leaders and contemporaries of Mandela like Walter Sisulu and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Chief Albert Luthuli.

The other contenders are: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela; former state president FW de Klerk; golfing legend Gary Player; former Archbishop Desmond Tutu and deceased nominees Chris Barnard, who performed the world's first heart transplant, Xolani Nkosi Johnson, a young lad who won millions of hearts with his public appearances speaking about fighting HIV/AIDS before succumbing to it and former prime minister Jan Smuts.