Nelson Mandela is on life support in hospital, a family elder said, as South Africa's president cancelled a trip abroad following a visit to the revered anti-apartheid hero's bedside. President Jacob Zuma late Wednesday abruptly cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique after he visited Mandela, who has been in critical condition for several days. It is the first time Zuma has scrapped a public engagement since Mandela was hospitalised on June 8. "President Zuma was briefed by the doctors who are still doing everything they can to ensure his well-being," a statement from the presidency said. Twenty hours earlier Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba had visited the Mediclinic Heart Hospital to pray with wife Graca Machel "at this hard time of watching and waiting".
"Grant Madiba eternal healing and relief from pain and suffering," the prayer said, using Mandela's clan name by which he is fondly known. "Grant him, we pray...a peaceful, perfect, end." Outside the hospital emotional crowds have been holding vigils, offering their own prayers and remembering the life of one of the greatest figures of the 20th century. Supporters sang hymns for the father of South African democracy and the architect of remarkable transition from almost half a century of white minority rule to landmark multiracial elections. "We have been so united -- blacks and whites together. That's the thought of Mandela in us," said Lerato Boulares, 35. With his life seemingly slipping away, messages of support for the former president blanketed a wall outside the hospital, including a poster bearing one of his most memorable quotes: "It only seems impossible until it's done". Mandela's lung troubles date from his 27 years locked up on the notorious Robben Island and in other apartheid prisons.
