JOHANNESBURG - Nelson Mandela’s health improved overnight and although his condition remains critical, it is now stable, the South African government said Thursday. One of the former president’s daughters said he is still opening his eyes and reacting to the touch of his family.
The report that the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader had taken a turn for the better came amid a growing sense in South Africa that Mandela was approaching the end of his life. Well-wishers have delivered flowers and messages of support to the Pretoria hospital where he is being treated.
President Jacob Zuma’s office said in a statement that he received the encouraging update from the medical team that is treating Mandela. Zuma had canceled an international trip Thursday, instead visiting Mandela for the second time in two days.
Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years during white-majority rule and became president in all-race elections in 1994, was taken to a hospital on June 8 for a recurring lung infection.
The president’s office said it was disturbed by what it called rumors about Mandela’s health and appealed for respect for the privacy and dignity of the former leader.
Mandela is reported to be on life-support systems, according to a few television networks that quote anonymous sources, but presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj has declined to comment.
Beginning a trip to Africa, President Barack Obama said in Senegal on Thursday that his thoughts and prayers were with South Africans and in particular the Mandela family. He said he was inspired as a law school student in the early 1990s to see Mandela step forward after decades of imprisonment to help deliver democracy in a spirit of reconciliation with his former captors.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 06/28/2013