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South Africa: Mandela discharged from hospital – receiving treatment at home
Former South African President Nelson Mandela. PHOTO/PETER DEJONG /AP
Former South African President and anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela was discharged from the hospital on Sunday while still in critical condition and was driven in an ambulance to his Johannesburg home, which has been set up to provide intensive care, South Africa’s presidency said.
An ambulance took the former leader home from the hospital in the capital, Pretoria, where he had been since June 8 for what the government has described as a recurring lung infection.
President Jacob Zuma said in a statement Sunday that Mandela’s condition “is at times unstable.”
“His home has been reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there,” the statement said. “The health care personnel providing care at his home are the very same who provided care to him in hospital. If there are health conditions that warrant another admission to hospital in future, this will be done.”
The statement Sunday from Zuma’s office said that during his stay in hospital Mandela “vacillated between serious to critical and at times unstable” and that “despite the difficulties imposed by his various illnesses, he, as always, displays immense grace and fortitude.”
Referring to Mandela by his clan name, the statement continued: “Madiba has been treated by a large medical team from the military, academia, private sector and other public health spheres. We thank all the health professionals at the hospital for their dedication.”
There has been an outpouring of concern in South Africa and around the world for the transformative figure who led the tense shift from apartheid’s white minority rule to democracy two decades ago in a spirit of reconciliation.
