Ndaba Thembekile Zweliyajika Mandela is Nelson Mandela’s grandson through his son Makgatho Mandela. It’s unfortunate that many people did not know about Nelson Mandela’s children from his first wife when he was still alive. Ndaba is also descending from Evelyn Ntoko Mase, Nelson Mandela’s first wife.

His late father Makgatho was Nelson Mandela’s second son but he was in most cases mistaken for being Mandela’s first son, since his elder brother Thembekile died long ago at the age of 24. Ndaba was named his middle name, Thembekile after his uncle.

Ndaba is an author, mentor, entrepreneur and political consultant. Beside those responsibilities he is also fathering two children. Ndaba (37) is the co-founder and chairman of the Mandela Institute for Humanity.

He is the founder of Mandela Project. He is also a member of the Pan-African youth council which works closely with the African Union.

Ndaba is a global ambassador (longest serving) for UNAIDS. It makes sense why he’s there, because both his parents died of Aids. His mother died first and about after a year and half later his father died too.

It was Nelson Mandela’s idea to reveal that the life of his remaining son by then Makgatho was claimed by Aids related complications, it was then that it got revealed that Ndaba’s mother, Zondi Mandela died of the disease. Nelson did it because he wanted to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS.