Former president Nelson Mandela will not be available to hand out the trophy that bears his name when Kaizer Chiefs attempt to become the first club from South Africa to lift the silverware on Saturday.

Mandela had been invited to attend the second leg of the African Cup Winners' Cup in Johannesburg where Chiefs host the Angolan police side InterClube. The first leg in Luanda on November 17 finished in a 1-1 draw.

But Mandela already has a prior engagement to open a new gateway to Robben Island, the prison off Cape Town where he spent more than two decades behind bars.

The trophy for the Cup Winners' Cup was named after Mandela in 1987, when a new trophy was needed to replace the previous silverware.

Egyptian club Al Ahli won the right to keep the old trophy after a third Cup Winners' Cup victory in 1986.

South African clubs have long set their sights on winning the competition because of the symbolism of the trophy but Chiefs are the first to go all the way to the final in nine years of participation.

Club officials said this week they would attempt to get Mandela to record a good luck message to be displayed on the big screen at Ellis Park before the match.

If they won the trophy would ensure the players took it to Mandela 's Johannesburg home to show it to him.

Confederation of African Football (Caf) officials said the trophy would be presented to the winning team by Leo Mugabe, a member of the CAF executive committee.

He will be standing in for Caf president Issa Hayatou, who was due to attend the World Cup draw in South Korea on Saturday.

Mugabe is the nephew of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.