US President Barack Obama arrived in South Africa on Friday to pay homage to his hero Nelson Mandela, who was said to be showing “great improvement” in hospital. Mandela’s strengthening health after several difficult days raised the possibility of a meeting between the two men, who shattered racial boundaries on either side of the Atlantic. Before he touched down in Pretoria, Obama indicated he would defer to Mandela’s family about whether to visit the ailing anti-apartheid icon.
“I do not need a photo op. The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive,” Obama said aboard Air Force One.
“I think that the message we’ll want to deliver is not directly to him but to his family, is simply profound gratitude for his leadership all these years,” he added.
Mandela, who turns 95 next month, has been in intensive care for three weeks for a recurrent lung disease dating from his years in apartheid-era prisons. After taking a turn for the worse last weekend, he has since shown tentative signs of recovery.
“From what he was a few days ago, there is great improvement, but clinically he is still unwell,” said ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who has visited him regularly in hospital.
She called on the media not to “get carried away” in their reporting on her former husband’s illness, but thanks them for their support.
“Please understand the sensitivities and the feeling of the family,” added the MP, who tirelessly campaigned for Mandela’s release during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid.
“We had no idea of the love out there for us in our particular situation and if sometimes we sound bitter it is because we are dealing with a very difficult situation,” she added.
Supporters have been gathering outside to offer prayers for the man who negotiated an end to decades of racist white minority rule and went on to become South Africa’s first black president.
“I came to pray for our father Nelson Mandela. We are wishing for our father to be fine,” said Thabo Mahlangu, aged 12, part of a group from a home for abandoned kids who travelled to Pretoria.
A wall of handwritten notes of prayers for Mandela’s recovery has become the focal point for South Africans paying tribute to the father of their nation, with singing and dancing by day and candlelight vigils at night.
A visit by Obama to Mandela’s former jail cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town on Sunday in particular is expected to be laden with symbolism.
Speaking in Senegal on the first leg of his long-awaited African trip, Obama described Mandela as “a personal hero”.
“I think he is a hero for the world, and if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages.”
The US president recalled how Mandela had inspired him to take up political activity, when he campaigned for the anti-apartheid movement as a student in the late 1970s.
-With The Independent input
