NELSON Mandela remains in a stable but critical condition more than two months after hospital doctors treating him for a lung infection let him return home to convalesce, the South African government has announced.
The government said in a statement: "The health of the former president remains much the same which is stable but critical," adding that he continued to respond to treatment.
The statement issued yesterday is thought to be in response to comments made by Mr Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, that he was still "quite ill" and unable speak because of tubes in his mouth to clear fluid from his lungs.
She was quoted at the weekend by a newspaper as saying: "The bedroom there is like an ICU ward."
The 95-uear-old anti-apartheid leader spent 87 days in a Pretoria hospital before returning to his Johannesburg family home in September.
He is receiving round-the-clock treatment from 22 doctors and uses facial gestures to communicate, Mrs Madikizela-Mandela said, but doctors hope he will recover his voice.
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