Mandela showing 'sustained improvement,' Zuma's office says
Former South African leader Nelson
Mandela still is in critical condition at a
Pretoria hospital but "shows
sustained improvement," the
office of South African
President Jacob Zuma said
Monday.
Mandela, who turned 95 last
week, has been hospitalized
with a lung ailment since June.
Zuma, who visited Mandela in
the hospital on Monday, also
said last week that Mandela
was steadily improving, after
weeks of describing his health
as critical but stable.
Mandela, a Nobel peace
laureate, spent 27 years in
prison for fighting against
oppression of minorities in
South Africa. His history of
lung problems dates to when
he was a political prisoner on
Robben Island during
apartheid, and he has battled
respiratory infections over the
years.
He became the nation's first
black president in 1994, four years after he
was freed from prison.
The raid that saw Mandela jailed for life --
Liliesleaf 50 years on
