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A group of well wishers hold candles as they pray for the recovery of Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic heart hospital in Pretoria on June 26, 2013. South African President Jacob Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique, as a clan elder said Mandela was on life support, all but extinguishing hopes for the anti-apartheid hero's recovery/AFP

Africa

Mandela on life support, Zuma cancels foreign trip

A group of well wishers hold candles as they pray for the recovery of Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic heart hospital in Pretoria on June 26, 2013. South African President Jacob Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique, as a clan elder said Mandela was on life support, all but extinguishing hopes for the anti-apartheid hero's recovery/AFP

A group of well wishers hold candles as they pray for the recovery of Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic heart hospital in Pretoria on June 26, 2013. South African President Jacob Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique, as a clan elder said Mandela was on life support, all but extinguishing hopes for the anti-apartheid hero’s recovery/AFP

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 27 – South African President Jacob Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique, as a clan elder said Nelson Mandela was on life support, all but extinguishing hopes for the anti-apartheid hero’s recovery.

“Yes, he is using machines to breathe,” Napilisi Mandela told AFP late on Wednesday after he saw the 94-year-old in the Pretoria hospital where he has been treated for a recurrent lung infection for nearly three weeks.

“It is bad, but what can we do,” added the elder who usually presides over family rituals and meetings.

Zuma late Wednesday abruptly cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique after he visited Mandela, who has been in critical condition for several days.

It is the first time Zuma has scrapped a public engagement since Mandela was hospitalised on June 8.

“President Zuma was briefed by the doctors who are still doing everything they can to ensure his well-being,” a statement from the presidency said.

Twenty hours earlier Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba had visited the Mediclinic Heart Hospital to pray with wife Graca Machel “at this hard time of watching and waiting”.

“Grant Madiba eternal healing and relief from pain and suffering,” the prayer said, using Mandela’s clan name by which he is fondly known. “Grant him, we pray a peaceful, perfect, end.”

Outside the hospital emotional crowds have been holding vigils, offering their own prayers and remembering the life of one of the greatest figures of the 20th century.

Supporters sang hymns for the father of South African democracy and the architect of remarkable transition from almost half a century of white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections.

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“We have been so united blacks and whites together. That’s the thought of Mandela in us,” said Lerato Boulares, 35.

With his life seemingly slipping away, messages of support for the former president blanketed a wall outside the hospital, including a poster bearing one of his most memorable quotes: “It only seems impossible until it’s done”.

Mandela’s lung troubles date from his 27 years locked up on the notorious Robben Island and in other apartheid prisons.

Elders from Mandela’s Thembu clan visited the country’s first black president as his “Rainbow Nation” comes to terms with the increasing frailty of the man who defeated decades of racist white minority rule to become the country’s first black president.

Zuma led delegates at a union conference in a rousing song Wednesday evoking Mandela’s role as a moral compass and leader of the struggle for freedom.

The South African president said that Mandela had spent his life “in dedication to humanity”.

Meanwhile messages of goodwill flooded in from overseas.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon said the whole world was praying for “one of the giants of the 20th century”.

“I know our thoughts and prayers are with Nelson Mandela, his family and loved ones, all South Africans and people across the world who have been inspired by his remarkable life and example,” Ban said.

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Hillary Clinton offered “love and prayers to our great friend, Madiba, his family and his nation during this difficult time.”

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