Prayers for Mandela: ‘It’s time to let him go.’

South Africans offer prayers as they wait Sunday for news of Nelson Mandela after the ailing 94-year-old icon spent a second night in hospital in a serious but stable condition. There have been no updates since he was was hospitalized early Saturday at a Pretoria hospital with a recurring lung infection. The Nobel peace laureate has been in and out of hospitals in recent years. On Sunday, the front page of South Africa’s Sunday Times read, “It’s time to let him go.” Mandela’s longtime friend Andrew Mlangeni tells the paper South Africans may have to say goodbye to the beloved icon. He says, “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.” Mlangeni adds, “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.”
Considered the founding father of South Africa’s democracy, Mandela became an icon while enduring 27 years in prison for fighting against apartheid, the country’s system of racial segregation. The Nobel peace laureate is revered as a symbol of forgiveness after embracing his former jailers following decades of apartheid rule. He was diagnosed with early-stage tuberculosis in 1988. Still a powerful symbol of peace and unity, Mandela has not been seen in public since the World Cup final in July 2010.

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