JOHANNESBURG: The ambulance that rushed Nelson Mandela to hospital two weeks ago broke down, but the mishap did not endanger the anti-apartheid hero who remains in a serious condition, the South African presidency said yesterday.
The 94-year-old is receiving treatment for a recurrent lung infection as he begins his third week in hospital.
“Mandela remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital,” said Mac Maharaj, President Jacob Zuma’s spokesman.
He refused to comment on a report by a US news channel that Mandela was “unresponsive” and “has not opened his eyes for days.”
Referring to Mandela by his clan name, the spokesman told AFP that “authoritative reports about Madiba’s medical condition will come from the presidency, based on the reports the presidency receives from the doctors.”
Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, was taken to hospital in the early hours of June 8.
The ambulance that took him to hospital from his Johannesburg home to a heart clinic in Pretoria 55 kilometers (30 miles) away, had engine trouble and broke down en route. Another had to be called, Maharaj said.
The US channel claims Mandela was stranded for about 40 minutes while waiting for the replacement ambulance. Maharaj refused to say how long Mandela’s ambulance remained by the roadside, during the southern hemisphere’s winter.
Maharaj claimed doctors were “satisfied” that Mandela suffered no harm during the wait for, and transfer to, a replacement ambulance.
The “fully equipped ICU (intensive care unit) ambulance” had a “full complement including intensive care specialists and ICU nurses,” he said.
Ambulances breakdowns are uncommon in South Africa, the continent’s wealthiest country, where vehicle repairs and maintenance are generally conducted to high standards.
