JOHANNESBURG Retiring from the presidency was like being "out of jail for the second time," said former South African leader and long-time political prisoner Nelson Mandela in an interview aired Sunday. Just over two weeks after handing power to President Thabo Mbeki last month, Mandela told SABC television: "I am happy ... to be out of jail for the second time.

"I can now not just carry out duties, even though I enjoyed doing so. But I am now going to concentrate on what appeals to me." The popular statesman, who turns 81 this month, said he had two main plans for his retirement. "Firstly, there is the question of now being with my grandchildren, which I have missed a great deal.

I have hardly been at home and spent enough time with them. "Then, secondly, there is the question of sitting down and recording my memoirs of the presidential years," he said. Mandela missed out on the youth of his own children because apartheid governments jailed him for 27 years, an experience detailed in his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom," a chronicle of his life until he became South Africa's first black president in 1994. Since his retirement, Mandela has returned to the eastern Cape village of Qunu where he grew up, keeping a busy schedule which includes bringing development help to the impoverished region.

"I believe everybody does enjoy doing something which is appreciated by those amongst whom he lives," he said. (AFP)