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JOHANNESBURG — Former president Nelson Mandela is showing “sustained improvement”, the presidency said yesterday, his 44th day in hospital. “Former President Mandela is still in a critical condition in hospital, but shows sustained improvement,” spokesperson Mac Maharaj said.He said President Jacob Zuma had visited Mandela at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital earlier yesterday, and assured him of the “love and support of all South Africans”.
He also conveyed a message from the family of former African National Congress president Chief Albert Luthuli, who led the ANC during the period Mandela was arrested.
“On my behalf and Luthuli family as a whole, I wish you an enjoyable happy birthday. I am encouraged by the reports that have come through recently from the presidency and Mandela family pointing on the direction of some recovery in your physical condition,” wrote Luthuli’s daughter Albertina Luthuli, from Groutville, in KwaZulu-Natal.
“I pray that it be sustainable each day as time takes you forward,” she wrote.
“I shall forever cherish some of those moments when you came to my father’s home on the business of the ANC and we had to make tea and scones and host you.
“That laid the basis to regard you as my father after the death of my own biological father, Chief Albert Luthuli, and one has to admit that you always acted in the manner that consolidated that acknowledgement. May God Be With You.”
Zuma asked that people keep up their prayers for Mandela, who was admitted to hospital on 8 June with a recurring lung infection, and spent his 95th birthday there.
Yesterday, it was quiet outside the hospital, except for a handful of people arriving through the day to take pictures of a wall covered with tributes. — Sapa.
Online Reporter