The New York Times
Nelson Mandela in Critical Condition for Second Day
By DECLAN WALSH
Published: June 24, 2013
JOHANNESBURG — President Jacob Zuma said on Monday that Nelson Mandela
remained in critical condition for a second day in a hospital in
Pretoria where he is being treated for a lung infection.
Leon Neal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“Doctors are doing everything possible to ensure his well-being and
comfort,” Mr. Zuma said at a news conference in Johannesburg, but he
gave few details about the condition of Mr. Mandela, who was
hospitalized on June 8.
Mr. Zuma spoke as South Africans and admirers around the world awaited
word on the condition of Mr. Mandela, the iconic leader who played a
towering role in his country’s transition from white minority rule under
the system of apartheid to multiracial democracy in 1994.
Mr. Zuma said that he and Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of the
governing African National Congress, visited Mr. Mandela late Sunday.
“Given the hour, he was already asleep. We were there, looked at him,
saw him and then we had a bit of a discussion with the doctors and his
wife,” Mr. Zuma said. “I don’t think I’m in a position to give further
details. I’m not a doctor.”
Doctors told Mr. Zuma on Sunday evening that Mr. Mandela’s health “had
become critical over the past 24 hours,” according to an earlier
statement from the presidency.
In the statement on Sunday, Mr. Zuma said that doctors were doing
“everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring
that Madiba is well looked after and is comfortable.” Madiba is Mr.
Mandela’s clan name.
The language used in the statement was the strongest yet concerning Mr. Mandela’s health.
On Saturday, the president, seeking to play down news reports about Mr.
Mandela’s deteriorating health, described his condition as “serious but
stable.”
Mr. Mandela, who was freed by the apartheid government in 1990 after 27
years of imprisonment, became South Africa’s first black president after
the country’s first all-race elections in 1994. He retired from public
life in 2004.
He has not been seen in public since the World Cup soccer final in South
Africa in July 2010 and has been hospitalized four times since
December, mostly for the pulmonary condition that has plagued him for
years.
The South African government faced criticism over the weekend after it
confirmed reports that the military ambulance carrying Mr. Mandela to
the hospital had broken down, leaving him waiting on the roadside until a
replacement vehicle arrived.
No comments:
Post a Comment