COMEDY superstar Billy Connolly is backing a campaign to raise cash for a statue in memory of Nelson Mandela.

Sir Billy joins Sir Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalgleish and Lord MacFarlane in a bid to raise funds for a permanent memorial in the city to the late South African President.

All four patrons have been honoured by the city by being named Freemen of the City of Glasgow.

The Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation wants to mark the centenary of his birth by raising £250,000 to commission a statue in the city and to deliver linked educational programmes.

Planning permission has already been granted for a statue at Nelson Mandela Place, the former St George’s Place, which was the location of the apartheid supporting South African Consulate.

Billy Connolly said: “I am honoured and delighted to join the impressive line-up of worthy Glaswegians as a patron of the campaign to build a statue to Nelson Mandela in Glasgow.

“I met Mr Mandela in Oslo, Norway where he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He left an impression on me that I will never forget.”

When Connolly got the Freedom of the City he was congratulated by Mandela who said he was delighted to welcome one its most beloved sons to a very special club.

Lord Provost Eva Bolander said she was thrilled Sir Billy was supporting the campaign to raise cash for a statue.

She added: “I am incredibly proud of Glasgow’s brave history of condemnation of the cruel incarceration of the late, great Nelson Mandela and its steadfast and principled stand against apartheid.”