Nelson Mandela "recuperating," South African president says

Nelson Mandela remains in the hospital after undergoing a series of medical tests.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday honored anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who has been hospitalized since the weekend and who the president said is recovering from a lung infection.

Zuma was to unveil a statue of Mandela Thursday in the city of Bloemfontein, also called Mangaung, which next week hosts the ruling African National Congress party's convention.

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Nelson Mandela

"We will be able to yet again pay tribute to a man who became a symbol of both our struggle for freedom and the free and democratic South Africa," Zuma said.

Mandela, 94, was admitted on Saturday to 1 Military Hospital in the capital.

"As we meet, Madiba is recuperating from a lung infection at a Pretoria hospital," Zuma said, using Mandela's clan name. "We wish him a speedy recovery and assure him yet again of the love and support of many in the country and abroad."

Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said: "Doctors attending to former president Mandela continued to report that he was making progress and were satisfied with the way he was responding to treatment."

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Nelson Mandela remains hospitalized

Zuma made the remarks while dedicating an airport in the name of Bram Fischer, a white South African who was also a key figure in the struggle against apartheid, the system of racist white rule which collapsed in the 1994 elections which made Mandela the nation's first black president. Fischer was a Communist Party leader and a lawyer who defended Mandela at trial.

Mandela has a history of lung problems. He fell ill with tuberculosis in 1988 when he was still in prison. He largely retired from public life after serving one five-year term as president.