Mandela is not immortal - Bizos

Published Jun 25, 2013

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Johannesburg - George Bizos received the phone call from Graça Machel on Saturday - a good 24 hours before President Jacob Zuma told the world that Nelson Mandela’s medical condition had taken a turn for the worse.

Mandela and Bizos have been friends for 55 years.

 “She told me that he was not very good, and I accept that,” he said.

Bizos spoke on Monday about the friend he first met when he was a student at Wits in 1948.

This was as many South Africans began for the first time considering a future without their beloved elderly statesman, who will turn 95 next month.

Earlier, Zuma refused to say whether Mandela was on life support, saying he was “not a doctor” and respected doctor-patient confidentiality.

The president also defended his government’s handling of Madiba’s hospital stay.

He was vehement in rejecting claims that Mandela’s life had been compromised during a June 8 incident when a military ambulance carrying the icon broke down.

Some went as far as to accuse the Zuma administration of compromising Mandela’s health, after media reports at the weekend that the Struggle stalwart had to fight for his life in severe cold weather for 45 minutes after the ambulance broke down.

Addressing a SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) media briefing in Joburgon Monday, Zuma urged South Africans to accept that as much as Mandela was being loved the world over, the global icon was old and that at 95 his health “will begin to trouble him”.

Mandela’s family continued to visit him at the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria.

But Bizos has not visited Madiba during his latest stay in hospital.

“I have refrained from asking to see him. I have respected the doctor’s wishes of not allowing in too many visitors,” he said.

“None of us are immortal. We must let him live as long as possible.”

Bizos said he had last seen Madiba about a month ago at his Houghton, Joburg, home.

“He was reasonably well. He recognised me and we talked about the old days,” the lawyer said.

Bizos said it was a cold day and he had left his jacket in the car.

As Bizos left, Mandela said to him to remember to take his jacket, which he thought he had left in the house.

It was sign of the compassion and caring that Mandela was so well known for, said Bizos.

Speaking at the Sanef briefing, Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, refused to elaborate on the Presidency statement on Sunday night that Mandela’s condition had deteriorated to critical from serious 24 hours earlier.

Zuma said: “I don’t think we can be in a position to give further details. I am not a doctor, as you know. I am looking at all of you here and I can’t tell what is wrong with you.”

He said the country needed to understand that Mandela’s health situation was common for any person his age, adding that the least everybody could do was pray for his speedy recovery.

The ANC leader reiterated that his Sunday night statement, made after his hour-long visit to the hospital with party deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, had been based on what the icon’s doctors had told him.

“It was late, he was already asleep and we were there. We looked at him. We saw him, then had a bit of a discussion with the doctors and his wife, Graça Machel,” Zuma said.

 Also on Monday, Zuma said there was no need to postpone US President Barack Obama’s visit because of Mandela’s deteriorating health condition.

 Simultaneously, Planning Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday international investors need not worry about South Africa’s future when Mandela - often considered the moral compass of the ANC - dies, as his legacy would be safeguarded, Reuters reports.

“There have been concerns expressed, unjustifiably, about what happens when Nelson Mandela is no longer with us,” Manuel said.

He noted that Mandela’s health had been deteriorating - his last public appearance was in July 2010 - so his role has already diminished.

“It is up to us (to see) his legacy lives on. Whether he is physically here or not, it is his legacy we have to protect.”

The Star

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