Emotions build as Mandela fades
South Africans gather near hospital and home of anti-apartheid leader
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s president visited a gravely ill Nelson Mandela in the hospital Wednesday and canceled a visit planned for today to Mozambique, an indication of heightened concern over the 94-year-old’s deteriorating health.
President Jacob Zuma’s office said he found Mandela still be in critical condition during his visit and said doctors “are still doing everything they can to ensure his well-being.”
Mac Maharaj, Zuma’s spokesman, would not comment on reports that the former president and anti-apartheid leader was on life support systems in the Pretoria hospital where he was taken June 8 to be treated for a recurring lung infection.
South Africans were torn Wednesday between the desire not to lose Mandela, who defined the aspirations of so many of his compatriots, and resignation that the beloved former prisoner and president is approaching the end of his life.
The sense of foreboding about Mandela’s fate has grown since Sunday, when the South African government declared that his condition had deteriorated.
A tide of emotional tributes has built on social media and in handwritten messages and flowers laid outside the hospital and Mandela’s home.
On Wednesday, about 20 children from a day care center posted a handmade card outside the hospital and recited a poem. One of its lines: “Hold on, old man.”
World leaders, celebrities, athletes and others have praised Mandela, not just as the man who steered South Africa through its tense transition from white racist rule to democracy two decades ago but as a universal symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation.
In South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, where Mandela grew up, a traditional leader said the time was near for Mandela, who is also known by his clan name, Madiba.
“I am of the view that if Madiba is no longer enjoying life, and is on life support systems, and is not appreciating what is happening around him, I think the good Lord should take the decision to put him out of his suffering,” said the tribal chief, Phathekile Holomisa.
“I did speak to two of his family members, and of course, they are in a lot of pain and wish that a miracle might happen, that he recovers again, and he becomes his old self again. But at the same time they are aware there is a limit what miracles you can have.”
For many South Africans, Mandela’s decline is a far more personal matter, echoing the protracted and emotionally draining process of losing one of their own elderly relatives.
One nugget of wisdom came from Matthew Rusznyah, a 9-year-old boy who stopped outside Mandela’s home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton to show his appreciation.
“We came because we care about Mandela being sick, and we wish we could put a stop to it, like snap our fingers,” he said. “But we can’t. It’s how life works.”
His mother, Lee Rusznyah, said Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison under apartheid before becoming South Africa’s first black president in all-race elections in 1994, had made the world a better place.
“All of us will end,” said Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town. “We just want him to be peacefully released, whatever he’s feeling at this moment, and to be reunited with his Maker at the perfect time, when God so wills.”
The archbishop said: “Ultimately, we are all mortal. At some stage or another, we all have to die, and we have to move on, we have to be recalled by our Maker and Redeemer. We have to create that space for Madiba, to come to terms within himself, with that journey.”
Makgoba visited Mandela on Tuesday and offered a prayer in which he wished for a “peaceful, perfect, end” for the anti-apartheid leader.
In the prayer, he asked for courage to be granted to Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, and others who love him “at this hard time of watching and waiting,” and he appealed for divine help for the medical team treating Mandela.
Visitors to the hospital on Wednesday included Mandela’s former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The couple divorced in 1996.
Mandela, whose 95th birthday is on July 18, served a single five-year term as president and afterward focused on charitable causes. He withdrew from public life years ago and became increasingly frail in recent years. He last made a public appearance in 2010 at the World Cup soccer tournament, which was hosted by South Africa. At that time, he did not speak to the crowd and was bundled against the cold.
“Let’s accept instead of crying,” said Lucas Aedwaba, a security officer in Pretoria who described Mandela as a hero. “Let’s celebrate that the old man lived and left his legacy.”