Nelson Mandela 'no longer breathing unassisted' as South Africa prepares to say farewell

 NELSON Mandela's condition has reportedly deteriorated further, with South Africans today preparing to say farewell to the ailing anti-apartheid leader.President Jacob Zuma has been forced to cancel a trip to neighbouring Mozambique and released a statement confirming Mr Mandela's condition "remains critical."

"Over the past 48 hours, the condition of former president Madiba has gone down," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said, using the clan name by which Mr Mandela is affectionately known.

 The news came after reports emerged that Mr Mandela was no longer able to breathe unassisted and that the former leader's family had the option to switch off the ventilator keeping him alive.

"Yes, he is using machines to breathe," clan member Napilisi Mandela said after visiting Mr Mandela. "It is bad, but what can we do."

The former South African president's condition has been described as "at its worst" by family members, who said there is growing concern for the rapid decline of the 94-year-old.
"Nelson Mandela's tribal leaders have been told to prepare for the death of the former president, who remains in hospital unable to breathe without support," Stuart Ramsay, Sky News' Chief Correspondent, who is in South Africa, said.

 

President Jacob Zuma has cancelled a trip to Mozambique

Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end

Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town

Mandela has already spent 20 days in the hospital to be treated for what the government said was a recurring lung infection, his fourth hospitalisation in six months.

This has forced a growing realisation among South Africans that the man regarded as the father of their post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation" will not be among them for ever.

"Mandela is very old and at that age, life is not good. I just pray that God takes him this time. He must go. He must rest," said Ida Mashego, a 60-year-old office cleaner in Johannesburg's Sandton financial district.
A South African archbishop who visited Mandela in hospital has offered a prayer in which he wishes for a "peaceful, perfect, end" for the former president and anti-apartheid leader.
Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, posted the prayer on Facebook last night after visiting the 94-year-old.

In the prayer, Makgoba asks for courage to be granted to Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and others who love him "at this hard time of watching and waiting."

The archbishop says: "Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end."

SOURCE:express