Sunday March 10, 2013

Mandela hospitalised for medical check-up

JOHANNESBURG: Global peace icon and former statesman Nelson Mandela was hospitalised Saturday for a "scheduled medical check-up", the South African presidency said, months after he underwent treatment for lung infection and gallstones.

"Former president Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital in Pretoria this afternoon, 9 March 2013, for a scheduled medical checkup to manage the existing conditions in line with his age," said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj in a statement.

"Doctors are conducting tests and have thus far indicated that there is no cause for any alarm," he added.

The 94-year-old spent 18 days in hospital in December, when he received treatment for a recurrent lung infection and had surgery to extract gallstones.

The stint was his longest hospital stay since his release from prison in 1990.

He was discharged the day after Christmas and was last known to be convalescing under high care at his home in Johannesburg.

Mandela's grandson Mandla, the current head of the family clan, flew to Pretoria from his Eastern Cape province home Saturday afternoon upon learning of the hospitalisation, a family member told AFP.

The family knew nothing yet of Mandela's condition, he said.

After his previous discharge doctors insisted he stay in Johannesburg for now to be near the country's top medical facilities.

He retired to his childhood village Qunu in the Eastern Cape a few years ago.

"We appeal for privacy both for the doctors to be able to attend to their patient and for Madiba and his family," said Maharaj, using the Nobel Peace laureate's clan name.

President Jacob Zuma visited Mandela on February 11 before attending the Africa Cup of Nations final in Johannesburg.

Zuma found the former statesman "comfortable and relaxed" and watching television.

"He had the brightest smile," said Zuma.

Maharaj Saturday told local television eNews Channel Africa (eNCA) the world icon looked well the last time he saw him.

"He was on that day (in) exceptional shape... he is 94 -- we have to bear that in mind -- and frail," said Maharaj, who spent a few years imprisoned on Robben Island off Cape Town's coast together with Mandela during apartheid.

It was unclear how long Mandela needed to stay in hospital this time, added Maharaj.

The revered statesman, who turned 94 last July, has not appeared in public since South Africa’s Football World Cup final in 2010.

Rumours of his failing health or even death flare up periodically, forcing the government to issue assurances that all is well.

But authorities also have been known to play down his treatments as routine checkups.

His December hospitalisation was attributed to tests "consistent with his age".

In February last year he spent a night in hospital after receiving a minor exploratory procedure to investigate persistent abdominal pain.

In January 2011 he set the nation on edge when he was hospitalised for two nights with an unnamed acute respiratory infection, which the government initially described as "routine" testing.

While serving his 27-year prison term, Mandela was diagnosed with early stage tuberculosis in 1988, a disease which killed his father.

In 2001, he received radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer and told reporters the following year that he had been given a clean bill of health against the disease.

Mandela served one term as South Africa's first black president after winning historic all-race elections in 1994.

Having spent almost three decades in prison for opposing apartheid, he is revered as the symbol of the country's peaceful shift into democracy after racist white minority rule.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, together with apartheid South Africa's last president, FW de Klerk.

Mandela the man has grown increasingly frail in recent years, remaining out of the public eye at his rural home village in the Eastern Cape. - AFP