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South Africa: Nelson Mandela condition improves
Former South African President Nelson Mandela. PHOTO/PETER DEJONG /AP
(Reuters) – The condition of South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela has improved further, the government said on Sunday, as the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero spent a fourth day in hospital receiving treatment for pneumonia.
“Nelson Mandela had a restful day,” South Africa’s presidency said in a statement, adding doctors treating him had reported “a further improvement in his condition”.
“We are satisfied that the doctors are providing the former president with the best medical care possible to enable his recovery and comfort,” the statement said.
In their first detailed report of his condition, doctors said on Saturday that Mandela had “developed a pleural effusion which was tapped”, meaning they had drained excess fluid from around his lungs.
It is his third visit to hospital in four months, raising new concerns about the health of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, is revered at home and abroad for leading the struggle against brutal white minority rule, then promoting the cause of racial reconciliation when in power.
He stepped down as president in 1999 and has not been politically active for around a decade.
In the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in the sprawling black township of Soweto that Mandela once called home, worshipers attending Easter service prayed for the man seen by many as the father of their nation.
