Nelson Mandela in critical condition

Dalforce 1941 SG

Mandela in critical condition

24 Jun 2013

JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela's is in a critical condition, South Africa's presidency said Sunday, a sudden and significant deterioration in the hospitalised hero's health.

"The condition of former president Nelson Mandela, who is still in hospital in Pretoria, has become critical," said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, 16 days after Mandela was admitted for treatment for a lung infection.

Mandela, now a frail 94-year-old, was previously said to be in a serious but stable condition.

But after more than two weeks of intensive treatment at Pretoria's Mediclinic Heart Hospital, his condition is said to have deteriorated over the weekend.

President Jacob Zuma visited Mandela on Sunday evening and was told by doctors "that the former president's condition had become critical over the past 24 hours."

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, is due to celebrate his 95th birthday on July 18.

He has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for the pulmonary condition that has plagued him for years.

Throughout most of the last week his condition was said to be improving, and there had been suggestions from his family that he may be released.

Zuma sought to assure the country that medics were now doing all they could to save his life.

"The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands," Zuma said, using the revered leader's clan name.

Zuma was accompanied to the hospital by the ruling ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

The two also met with Mandela's wife Graca Machel at the hospital and discussed the condition of the Nobel Peace laureate.

Zuma appealed to South Africans and people worldwide to pray for Mandela, his family and the medics attending to him "during this difficult time."

The reaction was swift. Many South Africans took to social media to express their wish that Mandela get well, or at least be at peace.

Reverend and former government official Frank Chikane described the latest reports "worrying." "Must pray harder, assure family of (your) support," he urged compatriots via Twitter.

In Washington the White House National Security Council offered its thoughts and prayers to Mandela, his family and people of South Africa.

As much as Mandela is loved by South Africans, with the latest hospitalisation many have come to terms with their hero's fragility and have begun to look again at his achievements.

During 27 years in jail he became the figurehead of the anti-apartheid movement. On his release he negotiated an end to white rule and won the country's first fully democratic elections.

As president he guided the country away from internecine racial and tribal violence.

"Mandela soared above the petty confines of party politics," said political commentator Daniel Silke.

Sunday's announcement came after unconfirmed media reports that Mandela's condition was worse than what authorities and relatives had been indicating.

US news channel CBS had at the weekend given details of failing organs and said that Mandela was "unresponsive" and "has not opened his eyes for days". It claimed Mandela's liver and kidneys were operating at 50 percent of their capacity.

But authorities had refused to comment on the speculation.

It also emerged that the military intensive care ambulance that rushed Mandela to hospital in the early hours of June 8 developed engine trouble, resulting in a 40-minute delay until a replacement ambulance arrived.

The presidency said that Mandela suffered no harm during the wait for another ambulance to take him from his Johannesburg home to a specialist heart clinic in Pretoria 55 kilometres (30 miles) away.

"There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care," said Zuma.

"The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest (the day he was taken to hospital). "There is no truth at all in that report," said Zuma.

The African National Congress said it "has noted with concern" that Mandela's condition had worsened.

"The African National Congress joins The Presidency in calling upon all of us to keep President Mandela, his family and his medical team in our thoughts and prayers during this trying time."

Mandela's grandchildren based in the US also encouraged prayers in a tweet shortly after the news that their grandfather had become critical.

"Let us never forget to pray. God lives. He is near. He is real. He is not only aware of us but cares for us. He is our Father," said Swati Dlamini and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, tweeting under the handle @BeingMandela.

- AFP/ac

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/mandela-in-critical/721800.html

Dalforce 1941 SG

By Hirania Luzardo 06/27/2013

nelson mandela fidel castro

After being released from prison in 1990, one of the first things Nelson Mandela did was visit Cuba to express his admiration and respect for Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

“Who trained our people, who gave us resources, who helped so many of our soldiers, our doctors?" Mandela asked Castro during a public appearance in Havana. "You have not come to our country -- when are you coming?"

Fidel Castro responded, "I have not visited my homeland South Africa, but I love it as if it were my homeland."

Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela developed such a close relationship that it’s impossible to forget when speaking about the African leader in Latin America. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 inspired a young Mandela. Later in life,Mandela credited Cuba's military support to Angola in the 1970s and 1980s with playing a role in debilitating South Africa's government enough to result in the legalization of his party, the African National Congress, in 1990.

Nelson Mandela visited Cuba in 1991, months after his release from prison. After his trip to the Communist island he visited Argentina and Brazil -- the beginning of his relationship with Latin American countries that had recently lived under dictatorships, like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru.

South African business leader and philanthropist Bertie Lubner, in an interview with TeleSUR, explained that it shouldn’t be forgotten that many South African leaders had already visited Latin America in the past while Mandela was in prison.

“Members of the African National Congress party had already visited foreign countries with socialist components like Cuba, East Germany, Russian and in that way embraced socialism, equality,” Lubner explained.

When Mandela arrived to Cuba in 1991, Cubans were summoned onto the streets of Havana to receive the African leader who was awarded the country’s highest honors.

“If you ask any Cuban who Mandela is, they will place him among the greatest men who have ever lived,” Havana journalist Maria Elena Calderín told TeleSur.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president and Fidel Castro was the guest of honor at the inauguration ceremony.

"What Fidel [Castro] has done for us is difficult to describe with words," Mandela said. "First in the struggle against Apartheid he did not hesitate to give us all his help and now that we are free we have many Cuban doctors working here,"

Formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and South Africa began after May 11, 1994, though a friendship already existed between Castro and Mandela.

Cuba also agreed to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18.

For Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, Fidel Castro sent a congratulatory message to the leader:

“Glory to you, Nelson, who while in prison for 25 years defended human dignity! Slander and hatred could do nothing against your endurance of steel. You were able to resist and, without knowing or looking for it, you became a symbol of what is most noble in humanity. You will live in the memory of future generations, and in your memory the Cubans who died defending the liberty of their brothers in other lands of the world,” Castro wrote Juventud Rebelde, on the island’s state newspapers.

In 1975 Cuba began sending troops to southern Africa to support independence, over 300,000 soldiers set foot on Angolan soil alone, according to Cuban state newspaper Granma.

Nelson Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 1962. He spent 27 years in prison. He was released on February 11, 1990.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first democratic elections and remained in office until 1999.

With the creation of the South African National Party in 1948, the policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid, went into effect. Mandela became a figure of civil disobedience in 1952 within the African National Congress.

On June 8, Mandela was admitted into a hospital in Pretoria, South Africa and iscurrently in serious but stable condition. Nevertheless, the 94-year-old leader’s lung infection has gradually worsened.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/nelson-mandela-fidel-castro_n_3509710.html