Post date: Apr 29, 2013 5:14:43 PM
Nelson Mandela looks well and in good spirits as he poses for photos with President Jacob Zuma and other party leaders in his home in Johannesburg.
JOHANNESBURG; SOUTH AFRICA ( APRIL 29, 2013) (SABC) - Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is in good health and good spirits,South Africa's ruling African National Congress said on Monday (April 29) in the first update on his condition since he was discharged from hospital in early April.
President Jacob Zuma and other party leaders visited the 94-year-old former president at his Johannesburg home."Well we are here today visiting Tata Madiba with the officials - three of us, myself, the Deputy President, and the National Chairperson. We took a decision to visit him today, to come and visit him, and we are happy that we did come. And firstly the doctors gave us a report, and of course we saw him. He is looking very good, he is in good shape. We had some conversation with him, shook hands, he smiled. As you can see him that he is really up and about and stabilised. We are very happy, we think that he is fine." said President Zuma.
Mandela spent more than a week in hospital being treated for pneumonia - the third health scare in four months for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
He stepped down as president in 1999 and has not been politically active for about a decade.
But he is still revered at home and abroad for leading the long campaign against apartheid and then championing racial reconciliation in South Africa.
Mandela's lung problems date from his time as a political prisoner when he contracted tuberculosis. He spent 27 years on Robben Island and in other jails for trying to oust the white-minority government.