Mandela admitted to hospital

SOUTH AFRICA: Nelson Mandela was admitted to a hospital in Pretoria Saturday to undergo tests and was said to be doing well, the South Africa government said.

The 94-year-old former president and anti-apartheid icon was admitted for tests “consistent with his age”, the office of President Jacob Zuma said.

The government insisted there was “no cause for alarm”.

Zuma spokesman Mac Maharaj, once a fellow prisoner with Mandela, told AFP that while the tests were “not routine”, they were “normal tests that a person of his age undergoes”.

Officials refused to give more details about his condition or say which hospital he was at, instead appealing that his privacy be respected.

The revered statesman has not appeared in public since South Africa's Football World Cup final in 2010.

Madiba, as he is affectionately known by South Africans, has all but retired from public life, choosing to live in his childhood hometown of Qunu in the rural Eastern Cape.

AFP