South Africa: Mandela still remains in “Critical” Condition
By Newsfromafrica
Pretoria--Former South African President Nelson Mandela remains in a “critical” condition in hospital, as the entire country echoes with goodwill accord for the iconic figure.
On Sunday the government announced for the first time the distressing situation as critical, more than two weeks after the beloved anti-apartheid leader was admitted to hospital with a lung infection.
Mandela is said to have suffered damage to his lungs while working in a prison quarry during his 27 years in prison. He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while being held in jail on the windswept Robben Island.
President Jacob Zuma had visited Mandela in his Pretoria hospital on Sunday, where doctors said his condition had deteriorated in the last 24 hours.
"All of us in the country should accept the fact that Madiba [Nelson Mandela's clan name] is now old. As he ages, his health will... trouble him and I think what we need to do as a country is to pray for him."
A statement by the government reported that the doctors were doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that he [Mandela] is well looked after and is comfortable.
Official statements until Sunday had described Mandela’s condition as “serious but stable” though reports from close family members have suggested he was on recovery.
Speculations steaming from social media and media reports have described Mandela’s situation as being worse than what the authorities and relatives had been indicating, claims both the family and government have refused to comment about.
In an interview on Saturday with CNN, Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe, whom he had with his first wife Evelyn asked for the family’s privacy to be upheld at this particular time when most needed.
"Really, it's our dad, it's the children's grandfather. We've never had him in our life for the better part of our years. This is in a sense quality and sacred time for us, and I would expect the world to really back off and leave us alone," she said.
Mandela, 94, is admired for his spirited fight against the racial minority white rule in South Africa which handed him a 27-year imprisonment.
He was freed from prison in 1990 and later elected as first black South African president in 1994 where he ruled for a single term before stepping down in 1999.
Since his retire, he has played a little influential role in the country’s political and economic affairs, and widely global, before fully retiring to private life in 2004. He has mostly spent his retirement time between his home in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, and Qunu, the village in the impoverished Eastern Cape Province where he grew up.
His last public appearance was waving to fans from the back of a golf cart before the final of the soccer World Cup in Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium in July 2010.