Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, is “at peace” and his family are praying for a “smooth transition” for him as he battles a lung infection in hospital, his daughter Makaziwe has said.
Mrs Mandela, the former statesman’s oldest daughter with his first wife Evelyn, said he was being treated with “the best medicine in the world” but that the family had accepted he would not be with them much longer.
“All we do every day is take one day at a time and pray to the good Lord,” Makaziwe told CNN.
“All I pray for as a daughter is that the transition is smooth. He is at peace with himself. He has given so much to the world. I believe he is at peace.”
On Sunday night, President Jacob Zuma announced that 94-year-old Mr Mandela’s condition has now become “critical” as he is treated in hospital in Pretoria.
Last week, it was suggested that he might be recovering from the latest in a series of lung infections that have seen him in and out of hospital in the past year.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, Mr Zuma said his condition remained critical, but that any change in his status would be communicated readily.
Mr Zuma said that when he visited Mr Mandela and his wife Graca in hospital in Pretoria on Sunday night, the former president was asleep so he could give no more insights as to his condition.
“The doctors are doing everything possible to ensure his well-being and comfort,” he told journalists in Johannesburg.
Asked whether Mr Mandela was in pain, he responded: “When a person is critical, he is critical. I am not a doctor, a person to describe that condition.
“This is the father of democracy, the man who fought and sacrificed his life. Therefore he is the man we all love. All of us in the country should accept that Madiba [Mr Mandela’s clan name] is now old, and that as he ages, his health troubles him. What we need to do as a country is to pray for him to be well, to ensure that the doctors do their work so that he could come out of hospital.
“If we do that, we are honouring Madiba in his life.” Makaziwe Mandela, speaking before the revelation last night that her father was in a critical condition, appealed to the media feeding a voracious public interest in South Africa’s first black president to “back off”.
“It’s our dad. It’s the children’s grandfather. We’ve never had him in our life for better part of our years,” she told CNN.
“This is in a sense quality and sacred time for us, and I would expect the world to really back off and leave us alone “Nelson Mandela’s blood runs through these veins. Our veins. Give us the space to be with our father. Whether these are the last moments with us to be with our dad or there is still a longer. But they must back off.”
Mac Maharaj, Mr Zuma’s spokesman who spent time imprisoned on Robben Island with Mr Mandela during apartheid, said that if there was a “substantive change” to his condition, the president would be told and would pass the news on.
“It’s the duty of the doctors to inform the president immediately,” he said. “We wait for their guidance. The doctors are working night and day to improve his condition and we are hoping his condition will improve.” He denied suggestions that Mr Mandela’s life was being prolonged because of who he was. “I think the people raising that question are playing God,” he said. “The people who take the decisions about which hospital he goes to and what treatment he has are the doctors. They do not consult anyone.
“The former president Mandela has full confidence in the doctors, the government has full confidence in the doctors and the family has full confidence in the doctors.”
Read more: Telegraph
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