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Nelson Mandela In Critical Condition; Obama Calls Him A 'Hero'

June 27, 2013

South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela remains in critical condition in a hospital.

After visiting the 94-year-old on June 27, his daughter Makaziwe said: "I won't lie. It doesn't look good."

But she said Mandela was "still there" and responding to touch.

Emotional crowds continued to gather outside the hospital.

The South African presidential office said President Jacob Zuma had canceled a planned trip to Mozambique because of the seriousness of the situation involving the 94-year-old antiapartheid activist.

Zuma visited Mandela at the hospital in Pretoria on the night of June 26.

A presidential spokesman declined to comment on reports that Mandela is on life support, or requires machines to breathe.

Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years by the country’s formerly racist regime, became South Africa’s first black president in the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.

He is revered around the world for preaching reconciliation between South Africa’s majority blacks and the minority whites who formerly ruled the country.

In Senegal on June 27, U.S. President Barack Obama said Mandela was a "hero for the world" and "his legacy will linger on through the ages."

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, Reuters, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/south-africa-mandela/25029235.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.