Denis Farrell / AP Photo

Children play ball in front of a giant portrait of former president Nelson Mandela in a park in Soweto, South Africa, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Mandela remains in a hospital while he receives treatment for a recurrence of pneumonia. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj says there are no updates on 94 year old Mandela since an official statement Saturday on his condition. That statement reported the anti-apartheid leader was breathing without difficulty after having a procedure to clear fluid in his lung area.
Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool, File / AP Photo

FILE - In this June 17, 2010 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela leaves the chapel after attending the funeral of his great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African presidency says Mandela has been discharged, Saturday, April 6, 2013, from a hospital after an improvement in his condition. Officials say he was treated for pneumonia.
Denis Farrell / AP Photo

Visitors to Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg beneath a giant statue of the former president Monday, April 1, 2013. The presidential spokesman says former president Mandela spent Monday with family members in the hospital where he is being treated for a fifth day for a recurring lung infection that developed into pneumonia. The 94-year-old who helped free South Africa from white minority rule has had weak lungs ever since he quarried stone on Robben Island during some of his 27 years of imprisonment. He contracted tuberculosis there.
AP Photo

An ambulance believed to be transporting former president Nelson Mandela arrives at the home of Mandela in Johannesburg, Saturday, April 6, 2013. The South African Presidency has confirmed that Mandela has been discharged after spending nine days in hospital in Pretoria. Spokesman Mac Maharaj says the elder statesman was discharged, “following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition,” and thanked all South Africans and people around the world for their support. He says Mandela will now receive home based high care. Mandela was admitted to hospital on March 27 with pneumonia. Since then the 94-year-old former statesman has had fluid drained from his lungs to ease his breathing.
AP Photo

An ambulance believed to be transporting former president Nelson Mandela arrives at the home of Mandela in Johannesburg, Saturday, April 6, 2013. The South African Presidency has confirmed that Mandela has been discharged after spending nine days in hospital in Pretoria. Spokesman Mac Maharaj says the elder statesman was discharged, “following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition,” and thanked all South Africans and people around the world for their support. He says Mandela will now receive home based high care. Mandela was admitted to hospital on March 27 with pneumonia. Since then the 94-year-old former statesman has had fluid drained from his lungs to ease his breathing.
AP Photo

An ambulance believed to be transporting former president Nelson Mandela arrives at the home of Mandela in Johannesburg, Saturday, April 6, 2013. The South African Presidency has confirmed that Mandela has been discharged after spending nine days in hospital in Pretoria. Spokesman Mac Maharaj says the elder statesman was discharged, “following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition,” and thanked all South Africans and people around the world for their support. He says Mandela will now receive home based high care. Mandela was admitted to hospital on March 27 with pneumonia. Since then the 94-year-old former statesman has had fluid drained from his lungs to ease his breathing.

South Africans give thanks for Mandela improvement

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
The Associated Press

Published: Saturday, Apr. 6, 2013 - 6:14 am

Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 7, 2013 - 2:56 am

JOHANNESBURG -- Some South Africans have given thanks in Sunday prayers for the improvement in the health of Nelson Mandela, the former president who was discharged from a hospital after treatment for pneumonia.

Members of an outdoor congregation in Johannesburg say 94-year-old Mandela was in their thoughts often during his most recent hospitalization. The anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted to a hospital in the South African capital of Pretoria on the night of March 27 and was discharged on Saturday.

Knowledge Modisa, a South African advertising manager, says she and other worshippers have been putting Mandela "first" in their prayers.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison during the period of white racist rule that ended with his election to the presidency in a democratic vote in 1994.

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