Former South African president FW de Klerk was on Friday being gradually taken off a ventilator following respiratory problems after an operation to remove a cancerous tumour, his spokesperson said.
”He is responding well to treatment. He is being taken off sedation and being weaned off the ventilator and gradually starting to breathe himself,” David Steward said.
South Africa’s last apartheid-era president underwent surgery on June 3 in a Cape Town clinic to remove the tumour from his colon and four days later developed respiratory problems.
He had a pipe inserted into his throat Tuesday evening to help him breath more easily.
Frederik de Klerk was the last president of apartheid South Africa, serving from 1989 to 1994 before his appointment as one of two deputy presidents under Nelson Mandela.
Mandela and De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their role in negotiating a peaceful end to apartheid. — Sapa-AFP