---

Graca thanks world for Mandela wishes

14 June 2013

As Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, thanked people from across the country, the continent and the world for their well wishes, South Africa's former president began his 11th day in hospital on Tuesday.

The 94-year-old elder statesman is being treated in a hospital in Pretoria, where he was admitted on 8 June with the recurrence of a lung infection that has now seen him hospitalised four times since December.

News agencies Sapa and AFP reported that one of his daughters, Zenani Mandela-Dlamini, told reporters outside the hospital on Monday that Mandela was "doing very well".

President Jacob Zuma, in his Youth Day address in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday, said: "Over the last two days, although [Mandela] remains serious, his doctors have stated that his improvement has been sustained. He continues to engage with family.

"Let me at this juncture, invite you all to keep Madiba in our thoughts and prayers," Zuma said. "We love him and know that he loves us too."

Local and international media houses were camped outside the hospital, as well as Mandela's home in Houghton, Johannesburg, the whole of last week, while well wishes for the 94-year-old elder statesman poured in from around the globe.

In a statement issued on Monday, Graca Machel said: "So much love and generosity from South Africans, Africans across the continent, and thousands more from across the world, have come our way to lighten the burden of anxiety, bringing us love, comfort and hope.

"The messages have come by letter, by SMS, by phone, by twitter, by Facebook, by e-mail, cards, flowers and the human voice, in particular the voices of children in schools or singing outside our home," Machel said.

"We have felt the closeness of the world and the deepest meaning of strength and peace. Our gratitude is difficult to express. But the love and peace we feel give yet more life to the simple 'Thank you!'".

SAinfo reporter