¡¡JOHANNESBURG, June 14 (Xinhuanet) -- South African President ThaboMbeki will honor a group of domestic and international figures fortheir contribution to the country's democracy.

    They include United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and late US black activist Martin Luther King.

    Presidential awards will be presented to 57 people in Pretoria on Wednesday for their distinguished service or for making sacrifices for South Africa's democracy, Mbeki's office said in a statement on Monday.

    Many awards are posthumous ones.

    Independent Electoral Commission chairwoman Brigalia Bam will receive the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab for distinguished service for managing the country through three general elections since the end of apartheid in 1994.

    The first all-race election in 1994 made anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela the first black president of South Africa. The second and the third one both favored Mbeki and his African National Congress.

    Other local recipients include a doctor, a journalist and a woman movement leader, who were all life-long fighters for freedomand democracy.

    Twenty-two foreigners will receive the Order of the Companion of O.R.Tambo for their contributions to democracy in the country, said the statement.

    Annan heads the list of foreigners to be awarded. He is accompanied by King, former Tanzanian president Julius Nyere, and Salim Ahmed Salim, former leader of the Organization of African Unity.

    Director-general in the presidency Frank Chikane said many awards would be given posthumously because South Africa was still in the process of correcting the past.

    "In the past it was not possible to honor certain people for their contributions so now we must go back and lift them up," he said.

    He said the Order of the Companion of O.R. Tambo was in recognition that "they deserved to be heads of countries and presidents -- all leaders in their own rights." Enditem