Stars perform for Mandela's AIDS drive

Film star and rapper, Will Smith, Annie Lennox and Queen were among those entertaining more than 15,000 fans sprawled across the lawns of the exclusive Fancourt golf estate near George, about 250 miles from Cape Town.

Mandela, 86, was given a thunderous reception when he joined the crowd. "I would love to enjoy the peace and quiet of retirement, but I know that like many of you, I cannot rest easily while our beloved continent is ravaged by a deadly epidemic," said Mandela, who has retired from public life but launched the a drive to raise funds for life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.

HIV/AIDS activists praised Mandela when he announced in January that his only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, had died of an AIDS-related illness, aged 54. The announcement was seen as a major boost for efforts to end the stigma attached to AIDS.

Nobel peace prize laureate Mandela said the concert was dedicated to the women of Africa. "As daughters, mothers, sisters and grandmothers, every day they experience and live out the reality of this epidemic," he said.