Former President Nelson Mandela Discharged From South African Hospital

South African President Nelson Mandela with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The two leaders are recognized as pioneers in the struggle for national liberation and Pan-Africanism., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

1 September 2013
Last updated at 09:55 ET

Nelson Mandela discharged from South African hospital

Nelson Mandela arrived at his home in Johannesburg

Nelson Mandela has left hospital and has gone to his Johannesburg home, where he is continuing to receive intensive care, the South African presidency says on its website.

The announcement came a day after officials denied reports that the 95-year-old had already been discharged.

The statement says Mr Mandela condition remains critical and at times unstable.

South Africa's first democratically elected president has been in hospital since June with a lung infection.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is revered around the world for leading the fight against white minority rule and preaching reconciliation with the white community despite being imprisoned for 27 years.

BBC News, Johannesburg

Well-wishers have already started visiting Nelson Mandela's home in the Houghton suburb of Johannesburg. One man told me that as soon as he heard that Mr Mandela had left hospital, he woke up the children, jumped in the car and drove here.

"It's a spring day and we hope this will be a new dawn for Mandela that he will be a healthier person," he told me.

"If he dies, we won't feel the same - this world won't be the same," said his young daughter after reading some of the pebbles outside the house painted with messages of goodwill and love for the 95-year-old.

The statement from the presidency tells us that behind the high walls of his home, Mr Mandela will still receive the same level of intensive care from the same people who treated him at the Pretoria hospital - so in effect a special medical unit has been created.

"His team of doctors are convinced that he will receive the same level of intensive care at his Houghton home that he received in Pretoria [hospital]," the presidency statement says.

It says his home in the suburb of Houghton has been "reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there" and he will be treated by the same health care personnel who have been looking after him since 8 June.

If necessary, he will be readmitted to hospital, the statement says.

The BBC's Andrew Harding in South Africa says this is not the discharge of a man who has made a significant recovery but the transfer of a patient from an intensive care ward in a hospital to a specially built intensive care unit in his own home, presumably in line with his family's wishes.

But he notes that some people will take some encouragement from the fact that his doctors have said he was fit enough to make the 55km-journey (34 miles) and says such a decision will not have been taken lightly.

"It is a day of celebration for us, that he is finally back home with us," said his grandson Mandla Mandela.

On Saturday, sources close to Mr Mandela told the BBC and other international media that he had already returned home.

This was denied by South Africa's presidency, which handles all communications about the former leader's health.

After almost three months in a Pretoria hospital, Nelson Mandela was driven the 55km (34 miles) to his home in Johannesburg on Sunday.

Mr Mandela's lung condition is said to result from the tuberculosis he contracted during the 27 years he spent in prison for taking up arms against white minority rule.

He is been hospitalised four times in the past year and his latest stay lasted 84 days.

He became president after 1994 elections - the first time black South Africans were allowed to vote - and stepped down five years later.

His last public appearance was at the 2010 football World Cup, which South Africa hosted.