Breaking: Nelson Mandela placed on life support
Credit: AP Photo/Pool-Theana Calitz-Bilt, Pool
CNN reports that ailing anti-apartheid crusader Nelson Mandela has been placed on life support in a Pretoria hospital on Wednesday, according to an official.
Considered by many to be the founding father of South African democracy, the 94-year-old Mandela has been hospitalized since June 8 for a recurring lung infection. Officials have described his condition as critical since Sunday. In a statement issued late Tuesday, the government stated Mandela's doctors "continue to do their best to ensure his recovery, well-being and comfort."
Police barricaded the street leading to the main entrance of the Pretoria hospital. Well-wishers placed balloons, stuffed animals and messages of support along the wall outside the facility while crowds sang "Where is Mandela?"
"We need you!," read one sign along the wall. "We love you tata, get well soon!" said another, referring to Mandela by the Xhosa word for father. Another message was written on a stone left at the wall, reading, "Sending you light and love."
"He's going to feel a lot better when he sees these signs," said David Manaway, Mandela's grandson-in-law.
Mandela became an international icon after enduring 27 years in prison for combating apartheid, South Africa's long-maligned system of racial segregation. In 1994, four years after his release, Mandela was elected the nation's first black president.
Even as he has receded from the public arena in recent years, Mandela remains a popular figure of democracy worldwide.
"He is our hero. He is my mentor, my father. He is everything to me," said 36-year-old Kuda Nyahumzvi. "But when it is his time, we wish his soul could just rest. He spent so long in jail and struggling."
As South Africans continued to keep vigil, Mandela's family held a quiet meeting in his boyhood home of Qunu on Tuesday. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba later joined Mandela's family at the hospital to conduct prayers for the former president, calling for "a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect end" for the beloved public servant.
"Fill them with your holy courage and the gift of trusting faith, and take away their fears so that they may dare to face their grief," he said, according to a copy of the prayer posted on the archbishop's website. "And uphold all of us with your steadfast love so that we may be filled with gratitude for all the good that he has done for us and for our nation, and may honor his legacy through our lives."
Though the end is sadly fast approaching, funeral arrangements were not part of the family's talks during the visit to Qunu, says family friend Bantu Holomisa said. As Holomisa explained, plans for the funeral of a former head of state are arranged by the government.
Mandela turns 95 in July.