SA critical of govt silence over Mandela’s health

AFP/Johannesburg

Nelson Mandela’s house in Qunu

After heaving a sigh of relief at the news that Nelson Mandela had been discharged from hospital, South Africans turned to asking yesterday why there had been a two-day shroud of silence on his health.

Mandela was discharged from Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on Friday, ending almost 48 hours of anxiety that began Wednesday afternoon when his foundation said the 92-year-old anti-apartheid hero was in hospital for "routine tests”.

When the government finally broke the official news blackout around his condition—announcing that he had been treated for a respiratory infection but was in stable condition and about to return home—Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe admitted the situation "could have been handled differently”.

"Once the health professionals, doctors and the surgeon-general who are looking after his health indicate that he is to be hospitalised, we should be able to communicate that up front. We will do that in future,” he said.

Lack of planning and the difficulty of coordinating the multitude of voices around Mandela—his family, his foundation, his military medical team, the government and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) -- combined to create the communication break-down.

"Before the (Friday) press conference, a communication protocol had not been formalised,” Mandela Foundation spokesman Sello Hatang said.

During the two-day blackout, he said, "consultations went on among the different stakeholders about what is to be communicated by whom.

"Some did not want to say anything about what was going on. So the message was ‘no further update’ while consultations were going on. We needed to be absolutely sure that all stakeholders were happy.”

As media flocked to the hospital for news on South Africa’s first black president, family, friends and prominent politicians streamed in and out for visits, leaving the world wondering whether one of its most revered icons was on his death bed.

Officials have come in for sharp criticism for their silence.

Nic Dawes, editor of the country’s leading weekly, the Mail and Guardian, wrote of South Africans’ feeling of being stuck in a "national waiting room” waiting for an update on Madiba, the clan name by which Mandela is affectionately known.

"What South Africans feel for Madiba is not simply affection or respect. Even love may not be a strong enough word. His presence is part of the structure of our national being. We worry that we may not be quite ourselves without him,” he said.

Media analysts said officials should have had a better communication plan in place.

"There was a huge amount of speculation, a lot of rumours flying about on Twitter and elsewhere, a lot of which could have been avoided if some proper communication system had been put in place way earlier,” Franz Kruger, a journalism professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, said.

Anton Harbor, a fellow journalism professor, praised officials for finally clarifying the situation at Friday’s press conference, but criticised it as "too little, too late”.

"There was not clarity in terms of who speaks on behalf of Mandela and his family—whether it was the foundation, the government or the army,” he said.