Mandela in 'serious' condition in hospital

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South
African president and anti-apartheid hero
Nelson Mandela was in a “serious but stable”
condition on Saturday after being taken to
hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection,
the government said.
The 94-year-old, who became the first black
leader of Africa's biggest economy in 1994
after historic all-race elections, has been in
hospital three times since December. He has
been battling the infection for a few days, the
government said in a statement.
“This morning at about 1:30 a.m. (2330 GMT)
his condition deteriorated and he was
transferred to a Pretoria hospital. He remains
in a serious but stable condition,” it said.
The government's choice of words, in
particular the use of “serious”, was clear cause
for concern to South Africa's 53 million
people, for whom Mandela remains a potent
symbol of the struggle against decades of
white-minority rule.
“It's such painful news but I pray for him that
he can get better and better and better as he is
the best man in this country,” said Pretoria
resident Khodani Mulwena.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said he
was optimistic about the health of the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate.
“What I am told by doctors is that he is
breathing on his own and I think that is a
positive sign,” he said. “Madiba is a fighter and
at his age, as long as he is fighting he will be
fine,” Maharaj said, referring to Mandela by his
clan name.
Mandela stepped down as president in 1999
after one term in office and has been removed
from politics for a decade. His last appearance
in public was at the final of the soccer World
Cup in Johannesburg in 2010.
He appeared in a brief television clip aired by
state television in April during a visit to his
home by President Jacob Zuma.
At the time, the ruling African National
Congress (ANC) assured the public Mandela was
“in good shape”, although the footage showed
a thin and frail old man sitting expressionless
in an armchair with his head propped against a
pillow.
“Too much a saint”
Since his withdrawal from public life, he has
divided his time between his plush
Johannesburg home and Qunu, the village in
the impoverished Eastern Cape where he was
born and spent his early years.
Mandela spent nearly three weeks in hospital in
December with a lung infection and after
surgery to remove gallstones.
That was his longest stay in hospital since his
release from prison in 1990 after serving
almost three decades behind bars or on the
Robben Island prison camp near Cape Town for
conspiring to overthrow the apartheid
government.
His history of lung problems dates back to his
years on Robben Island, where he contracted
tuberculosis.
Although he remains widely revered, Mandela
is not without detractors at home and in the
rest of Africa who feel he made too many
concessions to whites, who make up just 10
percent of the population, in the post-
apartheid settlement.
Despite more than 10 years of affirmative
action policies aimed at redressing the
balance, South Africa remains one of the
world's most unequal societies with whites still
controlling much of the economy.
On average a white household earns six times
more than a black one.
“Mandela has gone a bit too far in doing good
to the non-black communities, really in some
cases at the expense of (blacks),” Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe, 89, said in a
documentary aired on South African television
this month.
“That's being too saintly, too good, too much
of a saint.”