Johannesburg - Nelson Mandela has been on life support since Sunday, while his doctors await an instruction from the Mandela family on whether to keep him there or allow him to die.
High-ranking government officials told The Star on Wednesday that Mandela was in a coma when President Jacob Zuma announced on Sunday night that the ailing man’s condition had deteriorated from “serious” to “critical”.
“He is on life support. He will never make any progress. It seems they will keep him there until they are prepared to inform the nation about the worst. That’s why Zuma has now cancelled his trip to Mozambique. Mandela is not dead. But he is clearly on life support,” a source said.
He said it was up to the Mandela family “to give consent for him to be released. He is now at that stage.”
Another source said Mandela’s doctors had reached a stage where they felt there was little they could do to save him.
“If the doctors can reach a stage where they give up, it becomes the responsibility of the family to instruct them to remove him from life support or keep him there.”
Several Mandela family members were seen entering the Mediclinic Heart Hospital this morning.
Journalist Debora Patta tweeted: “Sources: #Mandela some family members were summoned urgently to hospital and told to get here quickly @CBSNews.”
By 11am Eyewitness News was reporting that Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe, and 11 other family members had arrived at the hospital within the past hour. EWN also claimed to have independently verified that Mandela was on life support.
Zuma visited Mandela at 10pm on Wednesday and found him still in a critical condition, spokesman Mac Maharaj said.
“President Zuma has decided to cancel his visit to Maputo, Mozambique, where he was due to attend a Southern African Development Community summit.”
The Presidency has, over the past few days, described Mandela’s condition as “critical”, while giving no further details or clarity as to what this means.
Professor Guy Richards, ICU director at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, said: “It’s political speak for somebody who is very ill.
“It’s normally used when the patient could die imminently - but it’s also used when the patient could recover.”
Charlotte Maxeke surgery head Professor Ken Boffard said “critical” generally implied that “life itself is at risk”.
He added: “Life support means that we as physicians are intervening to keep the basic bodily functions going.”
This could include drugs to keep the heart pumping, a ventilator to control the lungs, or renal dialysis to keep one’s kidneys functioning.
Meanwhile, Chief Mandla Mandela - Mandela’s grandson - has broken his silence on reports that he has resisted plans by relatives to move the remains of Mandela’s children to Qunu for reburial.
On Wednesday Mandla, through his spokesman, Freddy Pilusa, denied reports of tension between him and his aunt Makaziwe.
Mandla was reportedly angered when certain relatives asked for the remains of his father, aunt and uncle to be exhumed from the Mvezo traditional area. Makaziwe and several other family members want the remains reinterred at the family burial ground in Qunu - also the earmarked final resting place of Nelson Mandela.
Pilusa said Mandla would not be drawn on reports that it was Mandela’s wish to be buried next to his children at a grave not far from the statesman’s home.
The Star