Johannesburg: Former South African President Nelson Mandela`s health is improving steadily, although he remains in a critical condition, a presidency statement revealed.
The 95-year-old has been receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection at Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria for more than two months.
Doctors at the hospital have assured to President Jacob Zuma that the anti-apartheid icon is making a slow but steady improvement, News24 reports.
Zuma has appealed the South Africans to keep on praying for Mandela`s recovery and good health, the report added.
Mandela`s youngest daughter Zindzi said that her father was now able to sit up without help and he was more alert and more responsive than before.
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Earlier, his ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had denied reports of him being in a permanent vegetative state.
Mandela had also celebrated his 95th birthday in the hospital few days back.
The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate became South Africa`s first black president in 1994.
He has spent 27 years on Robben Island and in other jails for his attempts to overthrow South Africa`s white-minority government.
ANI