{{A new video which shows South African President Jacob Zuma and officials of the governing African National Congress visiting a frail Nelson Mandela has stirred controversy.}}<\/p>\n
Open Video….http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pnEjYDWQFOY<\/p>\n
The video of the encounter, aired by state broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation, has sparked accusations of exploiting the anti-apartheid hero’s illness.<\/p>\n
This is the first television appearance Mandela has made in almost a year.<\/p>\n
Zuma and ANC officials are shown visiting the former South African president at his Johannesburg home, where he has been resting after a bout of pneumonia.<\/p>\n
Mandela stares mostly straight ahead, his face showing little expression in the footage.<\/p>\n
The 94-year-old was in “good health” and “good spirits”, the ANC said after Monday’s visit, in the first update on his condition since he was discharged from hospital in early April.<\/p>\n
The footage shows Mandela sitting next to Zuma with a pillow behind his head and his legs propped up under a blanket.<\/p>\n
“After receiving a briefing from the medical team, the national officials are satisfied that President Mandela is in good health and is receiving the very best medical care,” the ANC said.<\/p>\n
But the video shows Mandela in an armchair looking grey-skinned and unsmiling with his cheeks showing what appear to be marks from a recently removed oxygen mask.<\/p>\n
Zuma jokes and laughs with two officials of the ANC, some Mandela family members and the former president’s medical team while Mandela stares straight ahead. <\/p>\n
Zuma tries to hold Mandela’s hand but, given his lack of response, ends up covering it with his own.<\/p>\n
Mandela spent more than a week in hospital being treated for a recurring lung infection identified as pneumonia – the third health scare in four months for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.<\/p>\n
He stepped down as president in 1999 and has not been politically active for about a decade. But he is still revered at home and abroad for leading the long campaign against apartheid and then championing racial reconciliation.<\/p>\n
Mandela’s lung problems date from his time as a political prisoner when he contracted tuberculosis. <\/p>\n
He spent 27 years on Robben Island and in other jails for trying to oust the white-minority government.<\/p>\n
Television stations showed still images of Mandela smiling broadly during a visit by Hillary Clinton to his country home in August.<\/p>\n
The last video footage of Mandela showed his birthday celebrations in July last year.<\/p>\n
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{{A new video which shows South African President Jacob Zuma and officials of the governing African National Congress visiting a frail Nelson Mandela has stirred controversy.}} Open Video….http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pnEjYDWQFOY The video of the encounter, aired by state broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation, has sparked accusations of exploiting the anti-apartheid hero’s illness. This is the first television […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-7533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7533"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7533"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=7533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}