JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Former South African President Nelson Mandela was in the hospital Thursday for what his office said were routine tests, as the 92-year-old anti-apartheid icon's overnight stay drew extraordinary media attention.
Mandela undergoes regular hospital
checkups, but his latest visit starting Wednesday stretched into an unusually
long stay. Journalists camped outside the hospital Thursday, watching Mandela's
relatives and friends enter for visits.
Current South African President Jacob
Zuma's office cautioned reporters not to put pressure on Mandela's doctors, and
to give him "the respect that he is entitled to."
"President Mandela is
comfortable and is well looked after by a good team of medical
specialists," said a statement from Zuma's office, adding Zuma was being
updated on Mandela while at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Mandela was jailed for 27 years for
his fight against apartheid. He became South Africa's first black president in 1994
and stepped down after serving one term in 1999.
Mandela largely retired from public
life in 2004. The public has seen only glimpses of him recently, such as in
November, when his office released photos of a private meeting between Mandela
and members of the United States and South African soccer teams. The teams had
just played a match in his honor.
He also appeared at the closing ceremony of the World Cup in July, waving to the crowd as he was driven in a small golf cart alongside his wife, Graca Machel.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP Photo)
