Post date: Jun 14, 2013 3:15:58 PM
Children sing and priests pray outside hospital for ailing Nelson Mandela as he spends a seventh day being treated for a lung infection.
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 14) (REUTERS) - School children sang and wished Nelson Mandela a speedy recovery on Friday (June 14) outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria.
Carrying balloons and posters depicting Mandela, children chanted "We love you and we wish you well" as the former South African President spent a seventh day in hospital receiving treatment for a lung infection.The anti-apartheid leader's health is continuing to improve, but his condition remains serious, the South African government said on Thursday (June 13).
Teacher Kanelia Links said she wanted the children to seen where Mandela was and wish him a speedy recovery.
"We bring the kids here because they've been hearing and watching on the news that Tata Mandela is at hospital and they know we've been teaching them about the culture and the history of South Africa. And they know who is Tata. He is the ex-president of South Africa so we just wanted our kids to come and see where Tata Madiba is," said Links outside of the hospital.
Clergy also gathered outside the hospital to say prayers for Mandela.
"Let us believe together for the speedy recovery of the former President Mandela. Let us all come together, hold hands all over the world, and let us all call upon God so that he would heal President Mandela," Bishop of Attridgeville, Abraham Sibiya, said outside the hospital.
President Jacob Zuma visited Madiba, the clan name by which 94-year-old Mandela is popularly known, in the Pretoria hospital to which he was admitted in a "serious but stable" condition on Saturday, a statement said.
Mandela's hospitalisation is his fourth since December and has reinforced a creeping realisation among South Africa's 53 million people that they will one day have to say goodbye to their first black president.
During his time in hospital, the principal architect of the post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation" has also received visits from members of his family, including his current wife Graca Machel and former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to his time at the windswept Robben Island prison camp near Cape Town. He was released in 1990 after 27 years behind bars and went on to serve as president from 1994 to 1999.