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South Africa's Mandela in good health, good spirits



Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is in good health and good spirits, South Africa's ruling African National Congress said on Monday, in the first update on his condition since he was discharged from hospital in early April.

President Jacob Zuma and other party leaders visited the 94-year-old former president at his Johannesburg home.

"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.

Zuma and the other leaders had found "Mandela in good shape and in good spirits", the party added in a statement.

Mandela spent more than a week in hospital being treated for pneumonia - the third health scare in four months for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

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.

Mandela's lung problems date from his time as a political prisoner when he contracted tuberculosis. He spent 27 years on Robben Island and in other jails for trying to oust the white-minority government