Anti—apartheid icon Nelson Mandela’s condition remains “critical but stable”, South African President Jacob Zuma said today hoping he will be out of the hospital soon.
“These are very excellent doctors who are dealing with him,” Zuma said in a joint press conference with US president Barack Obama.
“We hope that very soon he will be out of hospital,” he added.
Zuma called Mandela the “founding president of our democracy who is much loved by our people and the world“.
Obama, who is here on an official visit, plans to meet with Mandela’s relatives privately, but does not intend to see the man he has called a “personal hero.”
Mandela, who turns 95 on July 18, has been admitted to a hospital here on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.
Obama decided not to visit his hero in hospital to preserve the “peace and comfort” of the anti—apartheid legend.
“The triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit,” Obama said after talks with Zuma.
Obama had said yesterday he did not need a photo—op with Mandela, whom he meet briefly in 2005.
Well—wishers are continuing to gather outside the hospital where Mandela, regarded the founding father of South Africa’s multiracial democracy, was admitted 21 days ago.
They have been singing and saying prayers outside the hospital and at Soweto former home of Mandela, who is revered across the globe as a symbol of resistance against injustice.