Mandela stable, to leave hospital soon

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is stable and comfortable in hospital after undergoing a "diagnostic procedure" for abdominal pains on Saturday and should be discharged by Monday, the government said.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hospitalized Saturday with an undisclosed stomach ailment, prompting concern about the health of the much beloved 93-year-old icon.          

Mandela's African National Congress, South Africa's governing party, said his hospital visit was not an emergency and that Mandela was in good health.         

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, has officially retired and last appeared in public in July 2010. The Nobel peace laureate became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term.          

Mandela "has had a long-standing abdominal complaint and doctors feel it needs proper specialist medical attention," President Jacob Zuma said, asking that Mandela's privacy be respected.           

Zuma's statement did not say at which hospital Mandela was being treated, apparently to protect his privacy, but that did not stop journalists from camping out at a military hospital in the capital, Pretoria, on the chance he might be there. In 2011, Mandela spent a few days in a private Johannesburg hospital with an acute respiratory infection.          

Mac Maharaj, Zuma's spokesman, said he could not immediately elaborate but that he would be issuing regular updates. The South African military, which took charge of Mandela's health care after he was hospitalized last year, and a spokesman for Mandela's office said they would have no statement Saturday.          

ANC spokesman Keith Khoza said Zuma's office had reassured ANC officials.           

Mandela "just had abdominal pains for some time now and the doctors decided a while ago that perhaps they should admit him, with a view to check those abdominal pains, so it wasn't an emergency admission," Khoza told reporters. "He's fine, he's in good health."