South Africa: Mandela and De Klerk, 2 past presidents suffering medically

FW de Klerk welcomes Nelson Mandela to his 70th birthday celebrations, March 18 2006. PHOTO/Mike Hutchings/ Reuters

Two former South African presidents bound together in the country’s struggle to exit apartheid are both suffering ill health.

Nelson Mandela on Tuesday spent his 25th day in the hospital, while officials announced that that F.W. de Klerk will be fitted with a pacemaker. De Klerk is the last leader of South Africa’s apartheid era. He and Mandela shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mandela, 94, was taken to a Pretoria hospital on June 8 for a recurring lung infection. Since then, there has been a groundswell of concern in South Africa and around the world for the man who spent 27 years as a prisoner under apartheid and then emerged to negotiate an end to white racist rule before becoming president.

As president, De Klerk bowed to local and international pressure and freed Mandela from prison.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press