Former South African president Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital for tests, the government said on Saturday.
It gave no details but said in a statement there was no cause for alarm about the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader.
The office of President Jacob Zuma said 94-year-old Mr Mandela was doing well and there was “no cause for alarm”.
Mr Mandela spent more than two decades in jail under the white minority apartheid regime.
He served as South Africa’s first black president between 1994 and 1999, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Mr Mandela has appeared in public only rarely since 2004, when he retired from public life.
In January 2011 he was treated for a serious chest infection, and a year later underwent a diagnostic procedure for an abdominal problem.