The South African consulate in Hong Kong yesterday told a travel company to immediately pull a front-page advertisement featuring an image of a fist-pumping Nelson Mandela above the word "freedom."

The advertisement by the online travel agency Zuji shows Mandela in jubilant mood, echoing his historic release from 27 years of apartheid jail in 1990, on the front page of the English-language South China Morning Post.

But South African representatives in Hong Kong said the use of the image was an infringement of copyright held by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

"We've seen the advertisement and have been in touch with the company involved, because Nelson Mandela's image is never to be used for commercial use," political consul for the South African consulate, Bryonie Guthrie, said.

She added that the advertisement was "quite strange."

Zuji said it would withdraw the ad immediately. "Zuji has nothing but the utmost respect for the late South African leader, Nelson Mandela," it added.

After serving as the country's first black president from 1994 to 1999, Mandela died last December, aged 95.

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