Mandela still critical but stable - South African government

    
Former South African President Nelson Mandela remains "critical but stable" in hospital, the South African government said on Monday.      

Mandela has been hospitalized several times in recent months. During a hospital stay that ended April 6, doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and drained fluid from his chest.             
Mandela has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during 27 years as the prisoner of the white racist government. The bulk of that period was spent on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela and other prisoners spent part of the time toiling in a stone quarry. 

Mandela was freed in 1990 and won election to the presidency in the country's first all-race elections in 1994. He was seen by many around the world as a symbol of resolve and reconciliation for his sacrifice in confinement as well as his peacemaking efforts during the tense transition that saw the demise of the apartheid system.  
           
The former leader retired from public life years ago and had received medical care at his Johannesburg home until his latest transfer to a hospital.             


REUTERS/AP