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    February 25, 2012

Mandela's Hospital Admission Planned: Spokesman

   VOA News
   This photo supplied by the South African Government Communications and
   Information Services (GCIS) shows former South African President Nelson
   Mandela and his wife Graca Machel at his home in Johannesburg, May 16,
   2011 (file photo).
   Photo: AP
   This photo supplied by the South African Government Communications and
   Information Services (GCIS) shows former South African President Nelson
   Mandela and his wife Graca Machel at his home in Johannesburg, May 16,
   2011 (file photo).

   A spokesman for South Africa's ruling party says former president
   Nelson Mandela's admission to a hospital in Johannesburg Saturday was
   planned on advice from his doctors.
   Keith Khosa of the African Nation Congress said an operation is not
   part of Mandela's care for an ongoing stomach ailment.
   Earlier Saturday, President Jacob Zuma issued a statement saying that
   Mandela has had "a long-standing abdominal complaint and doctors feel
   it needs proper specialist medical attention."
   Zuma expressed get-well wishes from the South African people and also
   requested the public respect the privacy of Mandela and his family.
   The 93-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has not appeared in public in
   recent months due to his fragile health.
   Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994,
   ending apartheid, the all-white rule of authority.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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