Leader of anti-apartheid struggle, 94, nearing end of life, supporters fear
South Africans the world over are bracing for the worst as Nelson Mandela remains in hospital in a critical condition.
The 94-year-old former president and leader of the anti-apartheid struggle has been hospitalised in Pretoria since 8 June for a chronic lung infection, believed to be exacerbated by the tuberculosis he contracted in the 1980s while imprisoned on Robben Island for 27 years.
Towards the end of June, Mandela’s condition was said to have deteriorated, prompting South African authorities to announce that he was “critical”.
In the latest reports, unidentified government and hospital sources say he is on “life support”.
“South Africans are starting to prepare for the eventuality [of his death],” said a South African in Dublin who asked to remain anonymous. “Everyone has realised that he won’t survive it.”
Already, local media reports state that family members of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was elected the first black president of post-apartheid South Africa, have been holding special meetings – including one at his home in the village of Qunu in Eastern Cape.
Born Rolihlahla Mandela in the then ‘bantustan’ of Transkei on 18 July 1918, his father Henry was one of the special advisors to the Thembu royal family. The name Nelson was given to him by a teacher in his youth, and in later years – particularly during his presidency from 1994 to 1999 – he was widely and affectionately known by his Xhosa clan name Madiba.
After divorcing his second wife Winnie – a controversial figure in South Africa – in 1996, Mandela married Graça Machel, widow of Mozambique’s first president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash at the borders of Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa on 19 October 1986.
