South Africa says the condition of Nelson Mandela is “critical, but now stable” after signs of improvement overnight.

In a statement, President Jacob Zuma said he visited Mandela at the hospital Thursday and said “he is much better today than he was when I saw him last night.”

Zuma had canceled a planned trip to Mozambique after checking in on the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon.

Earlier Thursday, Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe described her father’s condition as “very critical.” She said Mandela did not look good, but the family was holding on to hope.

“We still have this hope because you know, when we talk to him he will flutter, and try to open his eyes and open his eyes. When you touch him he still responds and I think for us, as his progeny, as long as Tata [father] is still responding, when we talk to him, when we touch him, I think that gives us hope,” said Makaziwe.

Mandela has spent the past 19 days at Pretoria’s Mediclinic Heart Hospital.

Makaziwe criticized foreign journalists outside of the hospital. She told a local reporter that foreign journalists were like “vultures” waiting like “when the lion has devoured a buffalo.”

Crowds of well-wishers remain outside the facility paying tribute to the anti-apartheid icon through posters, songs and prayer.

Many said they hope he can recover, but are ready to see him go if it will spare him pain.

The 94-year-old Nobel Peace laureate was hospitalized June 8 for a recurring lung infection.

On Tuesday, Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba offered a prayer that Mandela, the nation’s first black president, be granted a “peaceful, perfect end.”

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive Friday in South Africa as part of his week-long visit to the continent. He will visit Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for nearly two decades under apartheid. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance