NELSON Mandela was visited by two of his daughters yesterday after spending another night in hospital being treated for a lung infection.

The 94-year-old former South African president remained in hospital in Pretoria after being admitted early on Saturday when his already-frail health worsened.

His daughters Ndileka and Makaziwe spent the afternoon at his bedside.

Mr Mandela, who became South Africa's first black leader in 1994 after the defeat of apartheid, has a history of lung problems and has been admitted to hospital four times since December.

He is said by the South African Government to be in a "serious" condition, though he is breathing on his own.

Hundreds gathered to pray for the former president, who celebrates his 95th birthday next month, at Sunday Mass at the Regina Mundi Catholic church in the Johannesburg township of Soweto.

Mr Mandela's lung problems date back to his three-decade incarceration on Robben Island near Cape Town. He spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December after surgery to remove gallstones and with a lung infection.

His wife Graca Machel accompanied him to hospital on Saturday and cancelled an engagement in London.

Twitter was alight with comments from well-wishers in South Africa and across the world, many commenting on Mandela's legacy.

However, British National Party leader Nick Griffin sparked fury by describing the ailing Nelson Mandela as a "murdering old terrorist" on the social media platform, saying he had turned South Africa into a "crime-ridden basket case".