Mandela leaves hospital

Former South African president Nelson Mandela left hospital on Saturday after more than a week of treatment of pneumonia that raised global concern about the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader. "(He) has been discharged from hospital today following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition," the South African presidency said in a statement.
A military ambulance pulled into Mandela's spacious Johannesburg home before the statement was released. The presidency said Mandela, who spent about 10 days in hospital, would receive further medical care at his residence. This was the third health scare in four months for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and who is a global symbol of tolerance and the struggle for equality.
He was in hospital briefly in early March for a check-up and was hospitalised in December for nearly three weeks with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones. Mandela stepped down as president in 1999 and has not been politically active for a decade. But he is still revered at home and abroad for leading the long campaign against apartheid and then championing racial reconciliation while in office. His lung problems date from when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent 27 years on Robben Island and in other jails for trying to oust the white-minority government.
Mandela's last notable public appearance was at the final of the soccer World Cup in 2010. Since then, he has stayed at his home in Johannesburg or in Qunu, the remote village where he was born in the impoverished province of Eastern Cape. For several years South Africans have watched Mandela's health gradually deteriorate, reminding them of the mortality of the man whose face adorns the nation's new banknotes. As he has receded from public life, critics say his ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lost the moral compass he bequeathed it when he stepped down as president in 1999.
"There are those in South Africa who argue that the ANC, especially under the leadership of current President Jacob Zuma, has deviated from Mandela's principles and values," said political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi. Under such leaders as Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, the ANC gained international respect as it battled white rule.