JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela remained hospitalised in a critical state yesterday after doctors ruled out turning off his life support unless he suffers massive organ failure.
Meanwhile, his grandson’s lawyers were planning to lodge an official complaint over a court document which they say falsely claimed he was “in a permanent vegetative state”.
The anti-apartheid hero’s health condition was unchanged over the weekend, South Africa’s presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said on Saturday.
He is in a critical but stable condition after his June 8 admittance for an obstinate pulmonary infection and relies on machines to help him breathe.
A close friend of the former statesman had said turning off life support was discussed and ultimately dismissed.
“I was told the matter had been raised and the doctors said they would only consider such a situation if there was a genuine state of organ failure,” Denis Goldberg, who has known Mandela for more than 50 years, said on Friday.
“Since that hasn’t occurred they were quite prepared to go on stabilising him until he recovers.”
The 80-year-old Goldberg was convicted along with Mandela in 1964 for their fight against white-minority rule.
A court document filed by a lawyer for Mandela’s feuding family 10 days ago stated the 94-year-old was “assisted in breathing by a life support machine”.
“The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off,” the court filing read.
“Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability.”
The document — which was designed to press a court to urgently settle a family row over the remains of Mandela’s children — also stated that Mandela was “in a permanent vegetative state”.
South Africa’s presidency has said that is not the case, but refused to give further details of his condition, citing the need to respect Mandela’s privacy.
President Jacob Zuma, Mandela family members and his close friends have reported since last week his condition has improved.
Maharaj said on Friday that Zuma’s office “had not been party” to the court material and would not speculate on its content.
Earlier Goldberg said Mandela was “clearly a very ill man, but he was conscious and he tried to move his mouth and eyes when I talked to him”. Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting white-minority rule and went on to lead the process of racial reconciliation as South Africa’s first black president.
AFP
