Security boosted outside ailing Mandela's hospital

NBC NEWS - Security was boosted Tuesday outside the hospital where Nelson Mandela was being treated for a lung infection...

Adam Howard

Jun 11, 2013

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Security was boosted Tuesday outside the hospital where Nelson Mandela was being treated for a lung infection.

The number of police officers and private security guards was increased substantially and vehicles entering the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria were being checked.

On Monday, a newspaper photographer said his camera was broken after he was assaulted as he tried to take pictures of visitors entering the hospital.

Earlier, former wife Winnie Mandela paid a visit to the hospital. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Winnie, a fellow anti-apartheid campaigner, were married throughout his 27 years in prison when tuberculosis weakened his lungs.

After he was released in 1990, he took his fight for racial equality right to the presidency, toppling the minority white leadership and becoming South Africa’s first black president.

Many family members had visited the hospital, but according to local reports only those closest to Mandela were being allowed to be by his side, including his current wife Graca Michel. Among the stream of relatives coming in and out was Zenani Dlamini, Mandela’s daughter who also serves as South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina.

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