Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo walk after visiting Nelson Mandela.

AFP/Pretoria


Nelson Mandela remains in a “critical but stable” condition, the South African government said yesterday, after more than one month of intensive hospital treatment.
President Jacob Zuma thanked members of the public for their prayers and “dignified gatherings outside the hospital” in Pretoria where the 94-year-old apartheid hero was rushed on June 8.
Zuma also thanked the international community “for ongoing messages of support to Madiba and his family,” using the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s clan name.
Meanwhile friends and family offered an upbeat assessment of Mandela’s condition.
“With less than two weeks to go before the old man’s 95th birthday on 18 July, it’s time to celebrate his life. The old man is very much alive,” said grandson Ndaba Mandela outside the hospital.
“When I speak to him he responds. Let us not be in a spirit of sadness but a spirit of celebration because the old man is still with us today.” Granddaughters Zaziwe and Zamaswazi took to Twitter to reassure followers that Mandela was responsive.
“He is communicating with us, we are staying positive,” said the granddaughters via a joint account.  “He smiles.”
Madiba’s hospital stay has been overshadowed by a bitter family feud over the reburial of his three children.
Their remains were exhumed from the family graveyard in rural Qunu in 2011 by the icon’s eldest grandson Mandla, and reburied in Mvezo—where Mandela was born.
Last week, 15 members of the Mandela family led by his eldest daughter Makaziwe successfully sought an urgent court application forcing Mandla to return them.
The family has opened a case of grave tampering against Mandla, who is a traditional chief in the Mvezo village, which is Mandela’s birthplace.
Court documents filed on behalf of the family last month described Mandela’s condition as “perilous,” with one claiming he was in a “vegetative state.”
According to friend Denis Goldberg, doctors had considered turning off his life support, but decided it was not warranted in the absence of organ failure.
It is Mandela’s longest hospitalisation since he came out of prison in 1990.
The Mandelas’ spat prompted an impassioned plea from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, asking the family not to “besmirch” the peace icon’s name.
He said it was like “spitting in Madiba’s face.”
Meanwhile, messages of support continue to pour in for the man regarded as the father of democratic South Africa.
Members of the public including politicians have been posting messages on the wall outside the hospital and leaving flower bouquets on a daily basis.
Different religious groups across the country have also held special prayers for the much-loved Madiba, who became the country’s first black president in 1994, after the end of apartheid. Security at the hospital remains tight, with police searching vehicles entering the premises.
South Africa’s national prosecutor will decide this week whether to level criminal charges of grave tampering against Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, a spokesman said yesterday.
Mandla, the traditional chief of Mvezo, the village where Mandela was born, was last week accused of tampering with the three graves of Mandela’s children, after he exhumed their remains without consent.
The spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority in the Eastern Cape, Luxolo Tyali, said police had handed the case over to the public prosecutor for consideration yesterday.  He said “a decision to prosecute or not would be made during the course of this week.”
“There are three counts of violation in this case,” said Tyali.
Last week, a court ruled that Mandla return the bodies from to Qunu, after more than a dozen family members lodged an urgent interdict forcing him to return the remains.
The bodies which were exhumed in 2011 are those of Thembekile who died in 1969, Makaziwe who died as an infant in 1948 and Mandla’s own father Makgatho who was buried in 2005.
The three bodies were last week reburied inside Mandela’s homestead, following the court order.
Mandla has publicly slammed the court’s decision, arguing that he was not allowed a chance to state his case.