Mandela's condition getting better - Zuma

Nelson Mandela has started responding better to treatment. South Africa President Jacob Zuma told parliament that he is happy with the progress that the 94-year-old international icon is making following his hospitalization since Saturday.

Zuma had earlier reassured anxious people that his predecessor Mandela, although still in a “very serious” condition as he battles a recurrent lung infection, is receiving the best of medical attention. He then siad said the 94-year-old father of modern South Africa was in a stable condition.

“We are all feeling it, that our president, the real father of democracy in South Africa, is in the hospital,” Zuma told public broadcaster SABC. “We need him to be with us,” Zuma said. “And I’m sure, knowing him as I do, he’s a good fighter and he’ll be with us very soon.”

He said he had full confidence in the medics attending to the former statesman, who was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Saturday. “Whilst it is very serious… he’s stabilised and we are all praying for him really to recuperate quickly,” he said.

Zuma’s spokesman Mac Maharaj earlier told AFP that “stable has not meant better or worse; what it means is that his condition is not changing.”

Mandela’s relatives streamed to the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria to be at his bedside as fears grew over his condition. Security was tightened around the private facility, where a dozen armed police stood guard outside and incoming vehicles and pedestrians were searched amid a heavy media presence.

Mandela’s daughters Makaziwe and Zindzi, as well as former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, were seen entering the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. His current wife, Graca Machel, called off a trip to London last week to be with her ailing husband. 

Tuesday marked 49 years to the day since Mandela was convicted in 1964 for conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government. A day later he was sentenced to life in prison. He was sent to prison on wind-swept Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town. He was later transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, where he contracted tuberculosis.

Mandela’s latest health scare has been met with a growing acceptance among South Africans that their hero, who became the first black leader of the country after historic all-race elections in 1994, may be nearing the end of his life. He has a long history of lung problems since being diagnosed with early-stage tuberculosis in 1988. This is his fourth hospital stay since December.

Two months ago the Nobel peace laureate, who turns 95 next month, was discharged after treatment for pneumonia.

In December he underwent surgery to remove gallstones as he recovered from a lung infection. Then in March he was admitted for a scheduled overnight check-up before returning to hospital later that month for 10 days.