South Africa breathes sigh of relief as Nelson Mandela leaves hospital

 
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6 April 2013

Former South African president Nelson Mandela left hospital today after more than a week of treatment for pneumonia which raised huge concern around the world about the health of the 94-year-old former South African leader.

"[He] has been discharged from hospital today ... following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition," the South African presidency said in a statement.

A military ambulance pulled into Mandela's Johannesburg home before the statement was released. The presidency said Mandela, who spent about 10 days in hospital, would receive further medical care at his home.

This was the third health scare in four months for Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and who is a global symbol of tolerance and the struggle for equality.

He was in hospital briefly in early March for a check-up and was hospitalised in December for nearly three weeks with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones.

Mandela stepped down as president in 1999 and has not been politically active for a decade. But he is still revered at home and abroad for leading the long campaign against apartheid and then championing racial reconciliation while in office.

His lung problems date from when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent 27 years on Robben Island and in other jails for trying to oust the white-minority government.

Mandela's last notable public appearance was at the final of the soccer World Cup in 2010. Since then, he has stayed at his home in Johannesburg or in Qunu, the remote village where he was born in the impoverished province of Eastern Cape.

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