South Africa's Zuma calls Mandela's condition 'very serious'

PRETORIA, South Africa –  South African President Jacob Zuma described former leader Nelson Mandela’s condition as “very serious but stabilized” on Tuesday, and said that “all are praying” for the anti-apartheid leader’s recovery.
Officials had called Mandela’s condition “serious but stable” after he was rushed to the hospital with a lung infection on Saturday, but this is the first time it has been called “very serious.”
Zuma also said he had met with the medical team that is treating Mandela. In a statement earlier in the day, Zuma’s office said the president "has full confidence in the medical team, and is satisfied that they are doing their best" to make Mandela better.

“We certainly join everyone to say he should recover quickly,” Zuma added. “And I'm sure, knowing him as I do, he is a good fighter. He will be with us very soon."
Security was boosted outside the hospital where Mandela was treated on the fourth day of his stay in hospital on Tuesday. The number of police officers and private security guards was increased substantially and vehicles entering the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria were being checked.
On Monday, a newspaper photographer said his camera was broken after he was assaulted as he tried to take pictures of visitors entering the hospital.Earlier, former wife Winnie Mandela paid a visit to the hospital. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Winnie, a fellow anti-apartheid campaigner, were married throughout his 27 years in prison when tuberculosis weakened his lungs.
After he was released in 1990, he took his fight for racial equality right to the presidency, toppling the minority white leadership and becoming South Africa's first black president.

At Mandela’s home in Houghton, an upscale neighborhood in Johannesburg, school children paid tribute to the former president by singing and leaving get well messages.
"We are here today because of him. If it was not for him we were supposed to be not here,” said Madame Zodwa, the children’s teacher at Rainbow Hill Christian Primary School. “So we are so happy about his life and I know God has got a purpose for his life, so we are just here to wish him well."
Many family members had visited the Pretoria hospital, but according to local reports only those closest to Mandela were being allowed to be by his side, including his current wife Graca Michel. Among the stream of relatives coming in and out was Zenani Dlamini, Mandela's daughter who also serves as South Africa's ambassador to Argentina.
“There are restrictions which arise from the fact that Madiba is under intensive care," presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj said. "Those are medical restrictions to control movement of people (to exclude the) possibility of visitors bringing infection into the environment."
"President Jacob Zuma reiterates his call for South Africa to pray for Madiba [Mandela] and the family during this time,” an official government statement released on Monday said. Mandela is often affectionately referred to by his clan name Madiba.

By F. Brinley Bruton, Staff Writer, NBC News
Reuters contributed to this report.

Nelson Mandela: A revolutionary's life

Nelson Mandela was born in a small village in South Africa's eastern Cape in 1918, the youngest son of a counselor to the chief of the Thembu clan. He is pictured in about 1950, six years after he founded the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League with Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu.

Mandela, center, meets with fellow ANC Youth League leaders Walter Sisulu, left, and Harrison Motlana during the "Defiance Campaign" trial at the Supreme Court in Johannesburg in 1952. The campaign encouraged people to defy the apartheid laws, a system of strict racial segregation meant to ensure the continued economic and political dominance of white South Africans. Mandela was given a suspended prison sentence.

Mandela (2nd from right) returns to court in 1956. Alongside 155 other activists Mandela was charged with high treason, but the charges against him were dropped after a four-year trial.

Mandela married his second wife Winnie Madikizela in 1958, and they went on to have two daughters. The marriage ended in divorce in 1996.

Mandela gives a speech to the African Congress in 1961. The ANC had been outlawed the previous year and Mandela went underground, leaving South Africa in 1962 to undergo military training and gather support abroad

Returning to South Africa, Mandela was captured and sentenced to five years for incitement and illegally leaving the country. In 1964 he was among eight men sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial after being convicted of conspiracy, sabotage and treason. In this picture taken on June 16, 1964, the eight men leave the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, their fists raised in defiance through the barred windows of the prison van.

Mandela's daughter Zinzi, center, and other Cape Town University students stage a demonstration on August 29, 1985 demandting the release of jailed ANC activists

Winnie Mandela raises her fist in a black power salute on July 17, 1988, as she announces that a massive pop concert will be held to mark the 70th birthday of her jailed husband. As Mandela languished in prison, the international community tightened the sanctions first imposed on South Africa's apartheid regime in 1967. In 1990, President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC.

A jubilant Sowetan holds up a newspaper announcing Mandela's release from prison at a mass rally in Soweto on Feb. 11, 1990.

Add caption

After more than 27 years in detention, Mandela walks out of the Victor-Verster Prison in Paarl on Feb. 11, 1990, accompanied by his wife Winnie.

Two days after his release, Mandela addresses a rally attended by over 100 000 people at Soccer City Stadium in Soweto on Feb. 13, 1990. "The march towards freedom and justice is irreversible," he told the crowd.

Mandela and FW de Klerk, right, address the media following breakthrough talks between the ANC and the government at the Groote Schuur Estate in Cape Town on May 5, 1990.

Mandela acknowledges the applause during a speech to the United Nations in New York on June 22, 1990. Mandela urged the U.N. to maintain sanctions against South Africa until apartheid was abolished.

Mandela greets supporters on July 22, 1990 as he holds up high the keys of a Mercedes-Benz car that was especially built and gifted to him by workers at a plant in Mdantsana, a black township near East London. The vehicle became known as the Madiba Merc, after Mandela's clan name.

Nelson and Winnie Mandela join a group of clergymen and embassy officials on a visit to the Tokoza township on Dec. 12, 1990, in an effort to bring peace to the area where 83 people had lost their lives in clashes between Zulu and Xhosa factions in the previous five days.

Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10, 1993. De Klerk would go on to serve as one of Mandela's deputy presidents.

Mandela campaigning in Mmabatho on March, 15, 1994 in the lead-up to South Africa's first democratic and multiracial general election.

Mandela smiles broadly as he casts his vote in Oshlange, a black township near Durban, in the historic election on April 27, 1994.

Mandela takes the oath on May 10, 1994, during his inauguration in Pretoria as the country's first black president. "The time for the healing of the wounds has come," Mandela said. "The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us."

Mandela congratulates South Africa's rugby captain François Pienaar before handing him the William Webb trophy after his team's victory over New Zealand in the final of the Rugby World Cup at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on June 24, 1995. "It was on that day that he captured the hearts of white South Africa," said the author John Carlin, who wrote a book, later turned into an Oscar-nominated movie, about the significance of Mandela's embrace of the largely-white rugby team.

Mandela and Pope John Paul II listen to national anthems after meeting at Johannesburg International Airport on Sept. 16, 1995, at the start of the pope's first official visit to South Africa.

Mandela lays a brick at the Rolihlahla primary school in Ikhutseng, Warrenton, in the Northern Cape Province, on Aug. 31, 1996. Mandela's government launched a major reconstruction and development programme in an attempt to address South Africa's socioeconomic problems, but poor housing, crime and unemployment continued to blight the country.

Mandela shows U.S. President Bill Clinton Cell No. 5 at Robben Island, where Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years, on March 27, 1998. Clinton lauded Mandela for surviving the experience without "having his heart turned into stone."

On his 80th birthday, July 18, 1998, Mandela married Graca Machel, the widow of former Mozambican President Samora Machel.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, right, hands Mandela the five-volume report produced by his Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Oct. 29, 1998. The report revealed human rights abuse by various political parties during apartheid. Accepting the report, Mandela acknowledged that the wounds of the period of repression and resistance were too deep to have been healed by the TRC alone.

Mandela retired from public office after serving five years as president. On June 16, 1999 he attended the inauguration of his successor Thabo Mbeki, left, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Mandela hugs Babalwa Tembani, 20, who was infected with the HIV virus after being raped by her uncle at the age of 14, on a visit to the Nolungile Clinic in Khayelitsha, Cape Town on Dec. 12, 2002. In 2005 Mandela's eldest son Makgatho died of an AIDS-related illness. Announcing Makgatho's death, Mandela said "Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because [that is] the only way to make it appear like a normal illness."

Mandela holds the World Cup trophy alongside Desmond Tutu on May 15, 2004 in Zurich, Switzerland, after South Africa won the right to host the soccer tournament in 2010. Mandela played a key role in South Africa's bid for the event, and appeared at the closing ceremony.

Mandela celebrates his 86th birthday flanked by his wife Graca Machel, left, and ex-wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela, right, in his home town of Qunu in the Eastern Cape on July 18, 2004.

Mandela celebrates his 89th birthday with a group of young people at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in Johannesburg on July 24, 2007. After his retirement from politics Mandela remained involved in social issues through the Children's Fund and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, a charity set up in 1999

Brian May performs at the 46664 concert in celebration of Nelson Mandela's life, held at Hyde Park in London on June 27, 2008. The event was organized to raise funds for Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS "46664" campaign, named after his prison number. Exactly 46,664 people were expected to attend the event, which also celebrated the former South African president's 90th birthday on July 18.

With his wife at his side, Mandela blows out the candles on his 91st birthday in Johannesburg on July 18, 2009.

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama visits Mandela at his home in Johannesburg on June 21, 2011, accompanied by her mother and daughters.They are pictured reading his newest book, titled "Nelson Mandela by himself."

Mandela receives the African Nation Congress centenary torch from ANC chairwoman Baleka Mbete at his home in Qunu on May 30, 2012. The original torch was lit during the party's 100th birthday celebrations earlier in 2012, before a replica was presented to Mandela at his home.

Schoolchildren read about Mandela's life at a school in his home village of Qunu ahead of the opening of a container library by the Bill Clinton foundation in celebration of Mandela day on July 17, 2012.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton poses for a photograph with Nelson Mandela, 94, former president of South Africa, and his wife Graca Machel at his home in Qunu, South Africa, on Aug. 6, 2012. Her private lunch with the Nobel Peace Prize winner was the first event of her South African visit, an indication of the prestige still enjoyed by the man who led the fight against white-minority rule. The two chatted in his home ahead of the meal, an honor that few receive as Mandela's health has become more fragile with age.