NELSON MANDELA RECOVERY

NEWS ABOUT NELSON MANDELA::::::


       
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY DEFENSE MINISTER

  Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the 93-year-old former president had undergone a laparoscopy  but was "as fine as can be at his age".

    PROCEDURE FOR OPERATION:  
                                                              The procedure involves inserting a tiny camera through the abdomen or pelvis to carry out an internal investigation.

Highness:   The Nobel Prize laureate is expected to be released from hospital by Monday.

Ms Sisulu, whose ministry is responsible for Mr Mandela's health, denied media reports that he had been operated on for a hernia but gave no further details on his condition.

Officials had previously said he had been suffering from a long-standing abdominal complaint.

"The only way that we could finally get to the bottom of this is by taking him to hospital and having a number of tests to find out if in fact what was prescribed, what we were giving him, was working and if we could not make it any better," Ms Sisulu told reporters.

"He's as fine as can be at his age - and handsome," she said.

The South African government has not said where Mr Mandela is being treated and has requested he be granted privacy.

Mr Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid rule and became South Africa's first black president in 1994, serving one five-year term.

He retired from public life in 2004 and his age and declining health mean he has appeared in public only rarely since.