PRETORIA, South Africa, June 9 (UPI) -- A longtime friend of Nelson Mandela said Sunday it's "time to let him go," as the former South African president remained hospitalized in serious condition.
The office of President Jacob Zuma had said Mandela, 94, had been hospitalized Saturday in "serious but stable condition" for a recurring lung infection in a Pretoria hospital. As of Sunday, Zuma's website had apparently crashed and he had offered no update, the CNN reported.
The front page of South Africa's Sunday Times read, "It's time to let him go."
The paper quoted Mandela's longtime friend Andrew Mlangeni as saying the time may have come for South Africans to say goodbye to the iconic anti-apartheid leader.
"You have been coming to the hospital too many times. Quite clearly you are not well and there is a possibility you might not be well again," said Andrew Mlangeni, Mandela's longtime friend. "Once the family releases him, the people of South Africa will follow. We will say thank you, God, you have given us this man, and we will release him too."
