The doctors treating Nelson Mandela told South African president Jacob Zuma that the ex-president’s condition has become critical. Zuma visited Mandela at the hospital in Pretoria on Sunday, and the doctors informed him that Mandela has been critical since Saturday. The 94-year-old former president has been hospitlaised for over a fortnight now. "The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that he is well looked after and is comfortable," Zuma said.
Stating that Mandela is in good hands, Zuma appealed to the people to pray for him. Mandela was admitted to hospital in Pretoria with a serious lung infection June 8. On March 27, he was hospitalised after beign diagnosed with pneumonia. He was also in hospital in December for lung infections.
Mandela suffered from tuberculosis when he was in prison for 27 years before he brought to an end to the Apartheid regime in 1994 abd became the president. Most of those years were spent on the Robben Island, a forbidding outpost off the coast of Cape Town. Mandela made his last public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, which was hosted by South Africa. He didn't deliver an address on that occasion and was bundled against the cold in a stadium full of fans.
Between hospital stays in recent months, Mandela has been staying at his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton, where he has received what the government described as "home-based high care" by a medical team. On April 6, he was discharged from a hospital after treatment for pneumonia, which included a procedure in which doctors drained fluid from his lung area.
