ailing icon's life support unless he suffers massive organ failure, a
close family friend told AFP.
Denis Goldberg — an anti-apartheid activist who has been Mandela's
friend for more than half a century — on Fridaysaid the issue of
turning off life support was discussed andultimately dismissed.
"I was told the matter had been raised and the doctors said they would
only consider such a situation if there was a genuine state of organ
failure," Goldberg said.
Since that hasn't occurred they were quite prepared to go on
stabilising him until he recovers."
The 80-year-old Goldberg was convicted along with Mandela in 1964 for
their fight against white-minority rule.
He visited the former president in hospital on Monday.
A court document filed by a lawyer for Mandela's family nine days ago
stated the 94-year-old was "assisted in breathing by a life support
machine."
"The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners
that his life support machine should be switched off," the court
filing read.
"Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring
this option as a very real probability."
The document – which was designed to press a court to urgently settle
a family row over the remains of Mandela'schildren — also stated that
Mandela was "in a permanent vegetative state."
South Africa's presidency has stated that is not the case, but has
refused to give further details of his condition, citing the need to
respect Mandela's privacy.
On the day the document was drafted, President Jacob Zuma abruptly
cancelled a trip to Mozambique to confer with Mandela's doctors amid
fears the 94-year-old may beclose to the end.
Zuma, Mandela family members and his close friends havesince reported
his condition has improved.
South African presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP on Friday
that Zuma's office "had not been party" to the court material and
would not speculate on its content.
"We did not file any document and we are not saying that it's true or
not true," he said.
Earlier Goldberg said Mandela was "clearly a very ill man, but he was
conscious and he tried to move his mouthand eyes when I talked to
him."
"He is definitely not unconscious," he added, saying "he was aware of
who I was".
Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting white-minority rule
and went on to lead the process of racial reconciliation as South
Africa's first black president, has now spent a month in hospital
after being admitted with a recurrent lung infection.
South Africa's parliament on Friday hosted a prayer service in a Cape
Town cathedral where Mandela was hailed as "an icon of a truly free
South Africa".
"It is a reflective period for our people," said national assembly
deputy speaker NomaIndiya Mfeketo.
"The thought of Madiba in hospital indisposed due to illness is
harrowing. This is not what we wish for our beloved hero."
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) dedicated its annual
Gauteng provincial general council meeting in Pretoria to Mandela.
"We want to acknowledge him as a comrade who not only stood for
the ANC as a servant of the people of South Africa; he also stood
for values of human rights and justice universally," said ANC Gauteng
deputy chairwoman Gwen Ramokgopa.
The delegates, dressed in white T-shirts bearing Mandela's image
and the words "Long live Nelson Mandela", sang strugglesongs dedicated
to the anti-apartheid icon, the South African Press Association
reported.
Meanwhile leading South Africans urged Mandela's familyto end an
increasingly acerbic family feud over the gravesites of three of
Mandela's children.
On Thursday Mandela's grandson Mandla launched a tirade at close
family members who took him to court to force him to reinter Mandela's
children at the revered former South African leader's proposed burial
ground in Qunu, his childhood village.
Mandla accused one of his brothers of impregnating his wife and said
others were born out of wedlock.
The three bodies were reburied Thursday in Qunu, but thefall-out from
the dispute continued to reverberate.
South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu pleaded with Mandela's
family not to "besmirch" the former president's name.
"Please, please, please may we think not only of ourselves.It's like
spitting in Madiba's face," said Tutu in a statement, using Mandela's
clan name.
Presidential spokesman Maharaj also urged the family to solve the
increasingly bitter dispute "amicably".
"It is regrettable that there is a dispute going on amongst family
members and we'd like that dispute to be resolved as amicably and as
soon as possible," he said.
Mandela was rushed to hospital on June 8 with a recurring respiratory infection.
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