Nelson Mandela discharged from hospital

Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital following a scheduled medical check-up and is doing well, South Africa’s presidency says.

“The doctors have completed the tests. He is well and as before, his health remains under the management of the medical team,” it said in a statement on Sunday.

A spokesman for President Jacob Zuma said there was “no need for panic” and that the doctors had treated Mandela for a pre-existing condition consistent with his age.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement that 94-year-old Mandela went to a hospital in Pretoria, the capital, on Saturday afternoon, without revealing any more details about the condition of the anti-apartheid leader.

It is Mandela’s second period of hospital treatment in less than three months. He was hospitalised for nearly three weeks in December before going home on December 26.

At that time, he was treated for a lung infection and had a surgical procedure to remove gallstones.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent 27 years in prison, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off Cape Town.

He became president of Africa’s biggest economy in 1994 after the first all-race elections brought an end to white-minority apartheid rule.