During 27 years in jail he became the figurehead of the anti-apartheid movement. On his release he negotiated an end to white rule and won the country’s first fully democratic elections.
As president he guided the country away from internecine racial and tribal violence.
“Mandela soared above the petty confines of party politics,” said political commentator Daniel Silke.
Sunday’s announcement came after unconfirmed media reports that Mandela’s condition was worse than what authorities and relatives had been indicating.
US news channel CBS had at the weekend given details of failing organs and said that Mandela was “unresponsive” and “has not opened his eyes for days”. It claimed Mandela’s liver and kidneys were operating at 50 percent of their capacity.
Authorities had refused to comment on the speculation.
But his daughter Makaziwe Mandela rubbished those claims telling CNN earlier Sunday that “he still opens his eyes, …the touch is there.”
It also emerged that the military intensive care ambulance that rushed Mandela to hospital in the early hours of June 8 developed engine trouble, resulting in a 40-minute delay until a replacement ambulance arrived.
The presidency said that Mandela suffered no harm during the wait for another ambulance to take him from his Johannesburg home to a specialist heart clinic in Pretoria 55 kilometres (30 miles) away.
“There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care,” said Zuma.
“The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest (the day he was taken to hospital). “There is no truth at all in that report,” said Zuma.
The African National Congress said it “has noted with concern” that Mandela’s condition had worsened.
The party “joins the Presidency in calling upon all of us to keep President Mandela, his family and his medical team in our thoughts and prayers during this trying time.”
Meantime Makaziwe, who is Mandela’s eldest daughter dismissed suggestions that the family should let the ailing global icon go, saying it was un-African.
“He hasn’t said we should release him and we haven’t come to the end yet, it’s only God who knows the end,” she told CNN.
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