[1]South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela is suffering from recurring lung infection, but is responding to treatment, the presidential office announced today, as his wife Graca Machel said “it’s heartsore seeing the sparkle dimming”.
Breaking silence four days after he was admitted for what was described as routine tests, the South African presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said that tests on ailing 94-year-old former president had detected the lung infection.
“Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment,” Maharaj said.
Mandela has been hospitalised at the 1 military hospital in Pretoria since Saturday for medical tests and the official announcement ended speculation about the ailment the former president was suffering from.
His hospitalisation had caused worldwide concern. Mandela had suffered acute respiratory infection in January 2011 elections and his lung impairment is attributed to tuberculosis which he contracted during his 27 long years in prison during apartheid era.
In 2001, he underwent seven-weeks of radiation therapy for prostrate cancer, ultimately beating the disease.
Meanwhile, in an interview with a local TV network, Graca said: “To see him aging, it’s something also which pains you... You understand and you know it has to happen”.
“It’s heartsore seeing the sparkle dimming,” said Graca, 67, who became Mandela’s third wife in 1998, four years after he became the first democratically elected president of South Africa following 27 years in jail as a political prisoner.
Graca was the widow of assassinated Mozambican President Samora Machel and Mandela had divorced his controversial second wife Winnie.
Her remarks came after several years of Mandela having stopped public engagements following his retirement from public life and several health scares over the past few years.
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