Former South African president Nelson Mandela on Wednesday
made his first appearance in more than seven months when he received a symbolic
flame to mark the ruling ANC’s centenary at his rural home in Qunu.
Mandela smiled as the African National Congress chairwoman Baleka
Mbete presented him with the flame in an event shown on television. The handle
was emblazoned with the party’s colours.
Nelson Mandela made his first appearance in six months when he
received a symbolic flame to mark the ruling ANC party's centenary at his rural
home in Qunu, in an event shown on television. A healthy-looking Mandela,
seated on an armchair, smiled as the African National Congress (ANC) chairwoman
Baleka Mbete presented him with the flame emblazoned with the party colours.
AFP
Seated on an armchair with a blanket pulled over his lap, the anti-apartheid
hero looked healthy but a little stiff.
“He was happy and he appeared to be healthy and asked a lot of
questions,” ANC spokesman Keith Khoza told AFP.
The clips on e-News channel showed the former ANC president
Mandela flanked by his wife Graca Machel and grandchildren.
He sat upright and could be seen nodding, as a former soldier of
the now defunct Umkonto weSizwe (the ANC armed wing) put the flame in front of
him.
Images of Mandela, who returned to his childhood village on
Tuesday, were last seen in October when he cast his vote in local government
elections in at his Johannesburg home.
The revered statesman who turns 94 in July was flown to
Johannesburg in January from the village and later had a medical check-up the
following month.
His previous hospitalisation in 2011 for a respiratory infection
caused a national panic, following a news blackout on his condition.
His last public appearance was at the 2010 World Cup final in
Johannesburg.
Mandela was released from 27 years in prison in 1990 and was
elected South Africa’s first black president four years later. He won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1993 and served one term before stepping down in 1999.