Pretoria - Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and daughter Zindzi Mandela arrived at the Mediclinic Heart Hospital on Wednesday where the ailing former president is being treated.
Earlier, Mandela's daughter Makaziwe Mandela arrived at the hospital through the Park Street entrance.
A group of Gauteng traditional healers performed a ritual for Mandela, who was admitted to the hospital with a recurring lung infection 47 days ago. The healers burnt incense in a pot, sprinkled tobacco, sang and summoned the Madiba ancestors to heal Mandela.
Khubane Mashele, chairwoman of the traditional healers' interim council in Gauteng, asked the spirits of those who had passed during the struggle to help heal the anti-apartheid icon.
“We summon the great kings and soldiers of the struggle to help us in calling the ancestors of Mandela, and help him heal because we still need him,” Mashele said in xiTsonga during the ritual.
A group of traditional leaders from the North West arrived at the facility to deliver messages of support and a bucket of flowers.
Kgosi Madoda Zibi, chairman of the house of North West traditional leaders, said they hoped to convey a message to the Mandela family.
“We have been mandated by the North West traditional leaders to come and express our well-wishes,” Zibi said.
“We just want to thank him for his contribution to the liberation of his country.”
Zibi and his delegation were told to place the flowers and a card at the wall outside the facility's Celliers Street entrance, where messages of support had been left since Mandela was hospitalised on June 8. - Sapa