Reporters have converged outside 1 Military Hospital, a healthcare facility in
the capital, Pretoria. The military in South Africa is responsible for the
health care of all former presidents and Mil One – as it is locally known –
is the biggest of its kind in the region.
Mac Maharaj, Presient Zuma’s spokesman who spent many years imprisoned with Mr
Mandela on Robben Island and helped smuggle out the manuscript of his
autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, said the hospital admission was
pre-planned and “not a major issue”.
“This is a long-standing complaint and it’s not as if he has just gone in
suddenly in an emergency, it has been pre-planned,” he said.
He said President Zuma was waiting to see a full report from the specialists
examining Mr Mandela before further information about his condition is made
public.
“I spoke to President Zuma this morning and he has requested the full
report before we decide what information to release,” he said.
“Once the specialists are through, I will try to give an update.”
Ndileka Mandela, the daughter of Mr Mandela’s eldest son, Thembi, said the
family was not unduly concerned. “When a person of that age is admitted
to hospital for a check up, you can never know,” she told The
Telegraph.
“All of us with grandparents know that for people at the age, things can
be touch and go.
“You and I can recover from a flu in two or three days but it takes them
much longer because they are old and not as strong.”
“Things can take a turn for the worst at any given time but for now, he
is fine.”
She said she last saw her grandfather on Wednesday when they celebrated her
birthday at his home in the upmarket suburb of Houghton in Johannesburg.
“He is in good spirits,” she said. “He was teasing me about how
old I was.”
She said that Mr Mandela was strong enough to withstand most ailments.
“He rebounded last year when he was admitted,” she said. “Madiba
is very strong and very determined.
“He fought on then, he soldiered on and to use a medical term, he built
up his reserves. Whatever happens, he should be able to fight it.”
Mr Mandela last appeared in public at the final of the football World Cup
hosted by South Africa in July 2010.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, a year before he was elected the
country’s first black president in South Africa’s first all-race vote and
served one term before stepping down in 1999.
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