Post date: Jun 11, 2013 7:8:52 PM
South Africa President Jacob Zuma says he met with doctors treating former President Nelson Mandela and wishes him a speedy recovery.
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 11, 2013) (SABC) - South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday (June 11) he met with doctors treating former president Nelson Mandela and Mandela was in very good hands. In a televised statement, Zuma said he was briefed by the medical team and Mandela's condition was serious but stable.
"We are all feeling it that our president, really the father of democracy in South Africa, he was the first president, is in the hospital. I have just issued, or my office has just issued, a statement today that yesterday I met a team of doctors who are treating him. They gave me a very thorough briefing. And really I was very confident that they know what they are doing and they are doing a very good job whilst he is very serious but he is stabilised and we are all praying for him, really, to recuperate quickly. We need him to go with us. And I am sure all the messages that have been pouring in to wish him quickly, quick, speedy recovery, they are highly welcomed. But that also indicates the love of our people to him. and we certainly join everyone to say he should recover quickly. And I'm sure, knowing him as I do, he is a good fighter. He will be with us very soon."Police tightened security around Pretoria's Mediclinic Heart Hospital which is treating Mandela. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is revered around the world for leading the struggle to end South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation and white-minority rule.
Around a dozen police officers were deployed outside the building, which was cordoned off by barriers and police tape to keep a phalanx of domestic and international reporters and television crews from the entrance.
All vehicles going into the building were being searched.
Mandela was admitted in the early hours of Saturday (June 8) with a recurring lung infection. It is his fourth hospital stay since December, and there is a growing realisation among South Africa's 53 million people that they will one day have to say goodbye to the father of the "Rainbow Nation" that Mandela tried to forge from the ashes of apartheid.
Mandela has received visits from family members including his current and former wives, Graca Machel and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to his time on the wind-swept Robben Island prison camp near Cape Town.
Before his 1990 release he spent nearly three decades in prison for conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government.