Nelson Mandela has recovered, says South African president

Nelson Mandela is gradually returning to his normal routine, the president said.

The former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, has "recovered" from the operation which took place in December to extract gallstones, and a respiratory infection he suffered, the South African president said on Sunday (6th). According to the source, quoted by local "Sapa," the doctors believe that Mandela, who is 94 years old and spent two weeks in the hospital in Pretoria, made "rapid progress" and continues to improve at his home in Johannesburg.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa after spending 27 years imprisoned for his activism of 67 years against apartheid, the racist system imposed on the country by the white minority.

Mandela led an exemplary transition that averted a civil war predicted by many, and is a global symbol of struggle for human rights and democracy.

Mandela's family asked the press last month to stop creating rumors about his death, and ensured that Madiba - Mandela's clan name in the Xhosa language with which he is affectionately called in South Africa - was fine.

The South African president, Jacob Zuma, expressed his good wishes to Mandela and reiterated the "love and support of all South Africans."

The former president, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, is still living in Qunu, in the Southeast, and only returned to Johannesburg for medical examinations.

The one in December was the third hospitalization of Mandela in the past two years, although the former leader is under permanent medical surveillance at his residence.

His last public appearance was at the end of the World Cup in South Africa in July 2010.

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru