Former South African president Nelson Mandela remains in a critical condition in hospital, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.
“Doctors are doing everything possible to ensure his well-being and comfort,” Mr Zuma told a news conference in Johannesburg. He declined to answer specific questions about Mandela’s condition, saying he had no further information.
The South African President visited Mr Mandela at the hospital on Sunday evening and was informed by the medical team that the former president’s condition had become critical in the past 24 hours.
A statement by the presidency following the hospital visit said: “President Jacob Zuma, accompanied by ANC Deputy President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, visited the former President this evening, 23 June in hospital. They were briefed by the medical team who informed them that the former President’s condition had become critical over the past 24 hours.”
In Sunday’s statement, Mr Zuma also discussed the government’s acknowledgement a day earlier that an ambulance carrying Mr Mandela to the Pretoria hospital two weeks ago had engine trouble, requiring the former president to be transferred to another ambulance for his journey.
He said that in that incident, “all care was taken to ensure that his medical condition was not compromised.”
He also dismissed media reports that Mr Mandela had suffered a heart attack, saying: “There is no truth at all in that report.”
Mr Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalised on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.