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| Giant photographs of former president Nelson Mandela are displayed at the Nelson Mandela Legacy Exhibition at the Civic Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 27, 2013. President Jacob Zuma canceled a trip to Mozambique on Thursday in an indication of heightened concern about Mandela, whose health deteriorated last weekend. |
JOHANNESBURG
(AP) -- Nelson Mandela's health improved overnight and although his
condition remains critical it is now stable, the South African
government said Thursday. One of the former president's daughters said
he is still opening his eyes and reacting to the touch of his family
even though his situation is precarious.
The
report that the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader had
taken a turn for the better came amid a growing sense in South Africa
that Mandela was approaching the end of his life. Well-wishers have
delivered flowers and messages of support to the Pretoria hospital where
he is being treated, and prayer sessions were held around the country
on Thursday.
President Jacob Zuma's office
said in a statement that he received the encouraging update from the
medical team that is treating Mandela. Zuma had canceled an
international trip on Thursday, instead visiting Mandela for the second
time in two days.
"I canceled my visit to
Mozambique today so that I can see him and confer with the doctors,"
Zuma said in the statement. "He is much better today than he was when I
saw him last night."
In April, Zuma gave an
overly upbeat assessment about Mandela's condition. At that time, state
television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other political
leaders to Mandela's home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in
good shape, but the footage showed him silent and unresponsive, even
when Zuma tried to hold his hand.
Mandela, who
was imprisoned for 27 years during white racist rule and became
president in all-race elections in 1994, was taken to a hospital on June
8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.
Zuma urged people to pray for Mandela, and continue with their work and daily activities even while he is hospitalized.
The
president's office said it was disturbed by what it called rumors about
Mandela's health and appealed for respect for the privacy and dignity
of the former leader. Unconfirmed reports about Mandela have swirled on
social media and other forums.
Mandela's
condition is acknowledged to be grave. He is on life support systems,
according to a few television networks that quote anonymous sources, and
presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj has declined to confirm or deny
those reports.
Makaziwe Mandela, one of
Mandela's daughters, echoed the criticism, saying foreign media coverage
of her father's illness had become intrusive, particularly at the
Pretoria hospital where many journalists have gathered.
"There's
sort of a racist element with many of the foreign media, where they
just cross boundaries," she said in the SABC interview. "It's like truly
vultures waiting when a lion has devoured a buffalo, waiting there for
the last carcasses. That's the image that we have, as a family."
She said: "We don't mind the interest. But I just think it has gone overboard."
In
comments posted on the SABC web site, Makaziwe Mandela said "anything
is imminent" because her father, referred to affectionately by many
South Africans as "Tata," or "Father," is in a very critical state.
"I
want to emphasize again that it's only God who knows when the time to
go is," she said. "So we will wait with Tata. He's still giving us hope
by opening his eyes, he's still reactive to touch, we will live with
that hope until the final end comes."
Beginning
a trip to Africa, President Obama said in Senegal on Thursday that his
thoughts and prayers were with South Africans and in particular the
Mandela family. He said he was inspired, as a law school student in the
early 1990s, to see Mandela step forward after decades of imprisonment
to help deliver democracy in a spirit of reconciliation with his former
captors.
"It gave me a sense of what is
possible in the world when righteous people, when people of good will,
work together on behalf of a larger cause," said Obama, who described
Mandela as a personal hero.
"And if and when
he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his
legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages," Obama said.
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