JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela “continues to get better” after more than a week in hospital battling a lung infection although his condition remains serious, South African President Jacob Zuma said yesterday.
“As you are aware, president Nelson Mandela is still in hospital in Pretoria. We are grateful that he continues to get better,” Zuma said at a public rally.
“Over the last two days, although he remains serious, his doctors have stated that his improvement has been sustained. He continues to engage with family.” The frail 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero was admitted to a private Pretoria clinic in the early hours of June 8 because of a recurring lung infection, his fourth hospitalization since December.
Mandela’s latest health problems have seen South Africans come to terms with the mortality of the man regarded as the father of the “Rainbow Nation” as its first black president.
Zuma was speaking in Newcastle, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, to commemorate the 1976 Soweto student uprising during white minority rule.
Zuma urged the nation to keep Madiba, Mandela’s clan name by which he is affectionately known, in “our thoughts and prayers,” as messages of support from the public continued to pour in.
Several family members, including his wife Graca Machel and ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela have paid visits to his bedside at the Pretoria hospital, where security remains tight and visitors restricted.
His grandson Mandla Mandela said on Saturday that the Nobel peace laureate had “looked good” when he visited him, adding: “It gave us hope that he is going to recover soon.”
Mandela has a long history of lung problems since being diagnosed with early-stage tuberculosis in 1988 during his 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime.
In December he underwent surgery to remove gallstones as he recovered from a lung infection. In March he was admitted for scheduled overnight checkup before returning to hospital later that month for 10 days, again for treatment for the lung infection.
Ordinary South Africans continued to pray for their hero.
“Today we are going to say a special prayer for our beloved Madiba,” said Patricia Morkel, who stopped outside his Johannesburg home on her way to church.
“We are going to pray that he doesn’t have to endure much more pain. The man has suffered a lot. He needs to be comfortable at home,” she said.
Mandela, who turns 95 next month, has not appeared in public since the World Cup final in South Africa in July 2010.
He looked frail and distant in a much-criticized April video showing Zuma and other members of the ruling African National Congress visiting him at his Johannesburg home.
On Saturday one of his bodyguards, Shaun van Heerden, accused his military medical team of curtailing Mandela’s freedom by imposing unnecessarily tough restrictions on visits.
He said Mandela was a very lonely man and that “at times it felt like he was back in prison.”
