Nelson Mandela is a more visible world leader than Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and the Pope. This is according to the Reputation Institute, which has done a perception assessment of 54 individuals currently considered to be global leaders. Not bad for a man who retired from presidency in the 1990s.

Some 51 000 members of the general public in 25 countries voted the former South African president number one on the visibility and perception scale, followed immediately (and somewhat surprisingly) by tennis star Roger Federer. Microsoft’s Bill Gates came in at third place, and investor Warren Buffet, business mogul Richard Branson and Apple’s Steve Jobs took fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively. Oprah Winfrey holds the eighth spot and U2’s Bono also made the top 10 in ninth position.

Other notable rankings were: the Dalai Lama, 13; US president Barack Obama, 14; Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 20; footballer David Beckham, 24; the Pope, 26; Prince Albert of Monaco, 28; and Madonna, 29.

Meanwhile, our current prez, Jacob Zuma beat Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (who came 37th), Lady Gaga (41), Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela (49), George W Bush (50) and Cuban leader Fidel Castro (51). A very good showing by the Saffers, then.

While respondents in the survey recognised Mandela as an inspirational character, it’s not mentioned how positive or otherwise the perception of JZ is worldwide.

[Source: Citizen]