South Africa: Hospitalised Mandela’s health improving, but

The doctors treating former South African President Nelson Mandela has said he is making a ‘slow but steady’ improvement in his health.

However, they told President Jacob Zuma that Mandela remains in a critical condition, according to the latest update issued by the presidency on Sunday.

Mandela, 95, continues to receive treatment in hospital in Pretoria, where he has been admitted since 8 June due to a recurring lung infection.

“Let us continue to pray for Madiba’s recovery and good health,’’ President Zuma was quoted to have said, using Mandela’s affectionate name.

Mandela’s 95th birthday was celebrated around the world last month, even as he laid critically ill in hospital.

This week, South Africa’s national football team Bafana Bafana will play two matches against African champion Nigeria as well as Burkina Faso in the Mandela Challenge Cup, the annual football tournament instituted to honour the anti-apartheid fighter.