As a small boy, Zondwa Gadaffy Mandela regularly visited his grandfather and grew close to the legendary leader of the anti-apartheid struggle. After he was released from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela would often interrupt his paperwork to conduct impromptu exercise sessions and dispense advice to his young grandson.

“We would do press-ups . . . and he would do them on two fingers, he was a very strong man.” laughs Zondwa Mandela, who is the son of Mr Mandela’s youngest daughter. “The big key, he used to say, was education and that you always needed to remain grounded. But the lesson I always learned from him is that everything is possible.”