Nelson Mandela's health critical yet stable, South African president says

JOHANNESBURG -- Nelson Mandela's health has improved since Wednesday night and the former South African president is now stable, President Jacob Zuma said yesterday.

The nation's first black president remains in critical condition, Zuma said in an emailed statement from his office after visiting Mandela in a hospital in Pretoria, the capital, yesterday. Zuma canceled a trip to neighboring Mozambique scheduled for after visiting Mandela, 94, . Mandela was admitted to the intensive-care unit June 8 to receive treatment for a recurring lung infection.

"He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night," Zuma said in the statement issued by his office. "The medical team continues to do a sterling job."

Hundreds of South Africans, many of them children, have been flocking to the hospital, leaving cards, balloons, flowers and messages of support for the country's first black president.

Mandela's wife Graca Machel and his grandson, Mandla, were among those seen leaving the hospital Thursday while 93-year-old Josephine Siwela, who clutched a copy of Mandela's book "Conversations with Myself," was among a crowd of more than 600 people outside.

"All this singing and chanting is to show our love and appreciation for the man lying on that hospital bed," Bafana Mtsweni, 24, an unemployed resident of Mamelodi, a township near Pretoria, said in an interview. "We still want to be with him."

Mandela, who is due to turn 95 next month, became the president of the continent's largest economy after his African National Congress won the country's first all-race elections in 1994. He spent 27 years in jail for opposing white-minority rule and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Doctors downgraded Mandela's condition to critical on Sunday. He is on life support machines to help him breathe, the London-based Daily Telegraph reported, citing Napilisi Mandela, a family member.

Mandela continues to open his eyes and respond to touch, his daughter Makaziwe told the state-owned SAfm radio station Thursday.