Nelson Mandela suffering from lung infection

Zeenews Bureau Johannesburg: South African icon Nelson Mandela is suffering from lung infection and receiving treatments for the same , President’s office revealed on Tuesday. South Africa’s first black President Nelson Mandela, aged 94, was on Saturday admitted for medical tests to 1 Military Hospital near South Africa’s capital, Pretoria. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said that Mandela’s tests showed that he was affected by a "recurrence of a previous lung infection". ‘‘Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment,’’ Maharaj said. Mandela is fondly referred to by the name of Madiba, his clan name. The revelation came a day after President Jacob Zuma visited him in the hospital and said that he was doing well. "We wish Madiba all the best. The medical team is assured of our support as they look after and ensure the comfort of our beloved founding president of a free and democratic South Africa," said Zuma. Madiba celebrated his 94th birthday on July 18 this year at his home in the village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, when some 12 million schoolchildren sang a birthday song especially". The revelation about Mandela suffering from lung cancer ended the speculations in South Africa, a nation of 50 million people that largely reveres him for being the nation’s first democratically elected president who sought to bring the country together after centuries of racial division. Mandela was a leader in the struggle against racist white rule in South Africa and for preaching reconciliation once he emerged from prison in 1990 after 27 years behind bars. He won South Africa’s first truly democratic elections in 1994, serving one five-year term. The Nobel laureate later retired from public life to live in his remote village of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, and last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament. Mandela has had a series of health problems in his life. He contracted tuberculosis during his years in prison and had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985. In 2001, Mandela underwent seven weeks of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, ultimately beating the disease. In January 2011, Mandela was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. In February this year, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. With Agency Inputs