Mr Mandela was rushed to hospital after initial complaints of long-standing abdominal pains, which needed ‘proper specialist medical attention’.
A government spokesman said the former leader was ‘in good spirits and well’.
I can assure you that the former president is in good spirits and well,’ said Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for South Africa president, Jacob Zuma.
He revealed that further information would be released once Mr Zuma and the Mandela family received a full medical report from doctors, but that the former president’s life was not in danger.
‘This was a long-standing complaint – nothing that cropped up suddenly and needed emergency attention‘, said Mr Maharaj, who was in prison in Robben Island with Mr Mandela.
‘But it is an issue that the doctors treating him felt needed specialist attention, and so arrangements were made accordingly‘.
The 93-year-old statesman and anti-apartheid icon has suffered declining health in recent years.
In a statement, President Jacob Zuma’s office said the ‘love and good wishes of all South Africans and people throughout the world’ were with Mr Mandela, and asked for his family to be given privacy
Mandela recently returned to Johannesburg from his rural home in the Eastern Cape and in January last year, he received treatment in the city’s Milpark Hospital for a serious chest infection.
The ‘Madiba’, as he is fondly called by South Africans, retired from public life eight years ago – his last public appearance was at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
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