Mandela still critical, government says

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  Nelson Mandela. - Source: One News
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A church leader has been with Nelson Mandela's family as the ailing freedom fighter begins a 19th straight day in hospital. 
  
The former South African president is still in a critical condition and large crowds continue to gather at the hospital where he is staying to pay tribute.

ONE News Correspondent Garth Bray, speaking from Pretoria, says the tributes to the former president grow every day and police have now closed off the road to the hospital to everything but essential traffic.

Bray says the crowds are bringing with them "optimism" however he says a "dose of realism" may also arrive today.

He said there have been reports of Mandela family meetings and reports of "increased activity in the eastern cape area around a proposed burial site".

Acceptance

There is a growing acceptance in South Africa that Mr Mandela may not be with them for much longer and the president himself has been preparing people for the inevitable.

Madiba, as he is affectionately known, is revered among most of South Africa's 53 million people as the architect of the transition to multi-racial democracy after three centuries of white domination.

However, his latest hospitalisation - his fourth in six months - has reinforced a realisation that the father of the post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation" will not be around for ever.

A deterioration in Mandela's health this weekend to 'critical' from 'serious but stable' has caused a perceptible switch in the national mood, from prayers for his recovery to preparations for a fond farewell.

"It would be selfish of us to expect him to live forever," said 29-year-old Cape Town chef Andisiwe Matiwane. "We need to be mature emotionally and just let nature take its course. We would love for him to be here forever, but it is impossible."

Obama to visit

US President Barack Obama is due to visit South Africa this week as part of a three-country Africa tour. Zuma said on Monday Mandela's worsening health would not affect the trip.

As preparations for Obama's visit stepped up in Pretoria, where Mandela is in hospital, senior members of his family met in his ancestral home in the village of Qunu, 700 kilometres south of Johannesburg in the remote Eastern Cape province.

The Sowetan newspaper said the meeting, called by Mandela's eldest daughter, Makaziwe, was intended to convened to discuss "sensitive family matters" although it did not disclose further details.

Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one five-year term in office. Since then he has divided his time in retirement between Qunu and his home in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton.

His last public appearance was waving to fans from the back of a golf cart before the final of the soccer World Cup in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium in July 2010.

The public's last glimpse of him was a brief clip aired by state television in April during a visit to his home by Zuma and other senior officials from the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

At the time, the 101-year-old liberation movement, which led the fight against white-minority rule, assured the public Mandela was "in good shape", although the footage showed a thin and frail old man sitting expressionless in an armchair.