Prayers for Mandela

South Africans prayed for Nelson Mandela as he spent a second day in hospital on Sunday suffering a lung infection that has sparked worldwide concerns for the ailing peace icon.

Mandela's latest health scare was splashed across the front pages of local newspapers but government officials have released no updates since announcing he was hospitalised in Pretoria early Saturday in a “serious but stable” condition.

The congregation at the Regina Mundi church in Soweto, a flashpoint during the anti-apartheid struggle, prayed for the 94-year-year-old national hero.

“I am coming to church today with Madiba in my thoughts.

I want him to get well,” churchgoer Nokuthula Tshibasa, 38, told AFP, using Mandela's clan name.

It is the fourth hospital stay since December for the Nobel peace prize laureate, who turns 95 next month, after he was discharged in April following treatment for pneumonia.

AFP