This picture shows former South African President Nelson Mandela in Sandton, June 17, 2010.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s President Jacob Zuma has canceled a visit to neighboring Mozambique over growing concerns about the health of the country\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s anti-apartheid revolutionary leader Nelson Mandela.\n<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Zuma made the decision to cancel his visit to Maputo, Mozambique – where he was scheduled to take part in the SADC Regional Summit on Infrastructure Investment – after he visited the 94-year-old Mandela late on Wednesday, according to a presidential statement.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cPresident Zuma was briefed by the doctors who are still doing everything they can to ensure his well-being,\u201d said the statement.\n<\/p>\n
Since June 8, South Africa’s first black president has been in a Pretoria hospital, where he has been receiving treatment for a lung infection. He has now been put on life support.\n<\/p>\n
This is the first time Zuma has cancelled a official event since Mandela was hospitalized earlier this month.\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, people are holding a vigil outside the hospital in Pretoria, praying for Mandela.\n<\/p>\n
The anti-apartheid revolutionary leader, who spent 27 years in apartheid prisons, has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner.\n<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, members of Mandela\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s family and tribal elders held a meeting at his home in the village of Qunu in Eastern Cape Province, 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Johannesburg.\n<\/p>\n
The Nobel Peace laureate, who led the country to democracy in 1994, left office in 1999 after serving one term as president.\n<\/p>\n
Seen as South Africa\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s moral compass, the highly revered leader announced his retirement from public life in 2004, but continued to make a number of public appearances.\n<\/p>\n
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