S. Africa worried as Mandela remains in hospital

JOHANNESBURG -- Nelson Mandela underwent more medical tests yesterday in a military hospital as the public and journalists outside asked: What, if anything, is wrong with the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon?

Government officials in charge of releasing information have repeatedly declined to provide specifics about the former president's now three-day hospitalization, calling on citizens to respect the beloved politician's privacy. Yet Mandela represents something more than a man to many in this nation of 50 million people and to the world at large. The longer he remains in the hospital, the louder the demand for the private details about his health will grow.

"He symbolizes what our country can achieve with a statesman of his stature. He's our inspiration and personifies our aspirations," says an editorial in the Sowetan newspaper. "That's why we dread his hospital visits, routine or not. That's why even now when we are told not to panic, we do."

Mandela is revered for being a leader of the struggle against racist white rule and for preaching reconciliation once he emerged in 1990 after 27 years in prison. He won South Africa's first truly democratic elections in 1994, serving one five-year term. The Nobel laureate retired from public life to live in his remote village of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, and last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

On Saturday, President Jacob Zuma's office announced Mandela had been admitted to a Pretoria hospital for medical tests and for care that was "consistent for his age." Zuma visited Mandela on Sunday and found the former leader to be "comfortable and in good care," a statement said.

Mandela's hospitalization wasn't publicly confirmed by the government until yesterday, when it acknowledged that he was being treated at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, the capital.