The South African Government said on Monday that Nelson Mandela remained in a stable but critical condition more than two months after doctors treated him for lung infection.
The former president was still quite ill and unable to speak because of tubes in his mouth to clear fluid from his lungs.
The anti-apartheid leader spent 87 days in a Pretoria hospital before returning to his Johannesburg family home in September.
Winnie Mandela, his ex-wife, said that he was receiving round the clock treatment from 22 doctors and used facial gestures to communicate with the hope that he would recover.
The 95-year-old made his last public appearance waving to fans from the back of a golf cart before the Soccer World Cup final in Johannesburg in 2010.
In April state broadcaster aired a clip of the thin and frail statesman being visited by President Jacob Zuma and top officials from the African National Congress.
Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president in multi-racial elections in 1994 that ended white minority rule.
His imprisonment included 18 years on the notorious Robben Island penal colony with other prisoners, where he first suffered the lung infections that were to afflict him for years.
According to the statement issued by the government, the health of the former president remains much the same, which is stable but critical though he continued to respond to treatment. (Reuters/ NAN)