WAMBUI CHEGE, Johannesburg | Saturday
A FRAIL Nelson Mandela addressed a South African charity meeting by video conference on Friday after doctors told him to rest due to his ongoing treatment for prostate cancer.
The former South African president was to attend the annual meeting of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, but doctors told him to ”take it easy” after two weeks of suffering from a common cold and radiotherapy treatment for cancer.
”I apologise for not being in person to join you. I am undergoing treatment at the moment and have been instructed by my doctors to rest,” Mandela said in the video message taped at his Johannesburg residence on Thursday.
It was not the first time the 83-year old Nobel Laureate has cancelled public appearances since he was diagnosed with cancer in July. The crowd of about 40 people were visibly moved after hearing Mandela speak in a weak and crackling voice.
”I am sorry for being so emotional but I have just seen one of the greatest men in the world and I can see he is going…,” said one teary-eyed businessman.
Mandela set up the fund in 1994 with a commitment to donate a third of his salary every month. The fund is supported by organisations from all over the world to help care for South African children.
The workaholic president, who has barely stopped for breath since his retirement in 1999, receives a few minutes of X-ray treatment five days a week.
”This is good. Mandela gives too much of himself, his time to the children’s fund, his family, to South Africa and to the world at large and at his age he should take it easy.” said Dr. Nthato Motlana, Mandela’s former personal physician.
Last week, Mandela’s representative said he was responding well to cancer treatment and there was no evidence the disease was spreading.
Mandela had been monitored since last year when doctors discovered raised levels of PSA (prostate specific antigen), which indicates cancer. A subsequent biopsy of the prostate gland confirmed the presence of microscopic cancer.
Doctors have said the cancer would not shorten his life, but the former president needed rest.
Mandela spent 27 years in apartheid prisons before his release in February 1990 to lead South Africa from white minority rule to full democracy four years later in 1994. – Reuters