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Subscribe to RSSNBC News Special Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports on his progress.
Updated at 12:09 a.m. ET: JOHANNESBURG -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hospitalized Saturday for a test to determine what is behind an undisclosed stomach ailment, and the country's current leader said the much beloved 93-year-old icon was in no danger.
Mandela, a Nobel peace laureate who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, has officially retired and last appeared in public in July 2010. He became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term.
Mandela "has had a long-standing abdominal complaint and doctors feel it needs proper specialist medical attention," President Jacob Zuma said in a statement Saturday morning, asking that Mandela's privacy be respected.
In a follow-up statement later, Zuma added that Mandela had undergone a planned, undisclosed "diagnostic procedure."
Mandela "is fine and fully conscious and the doctors are satisfied with his condition, which they say is consistent with his age. He was in good health before admission in hospital but doctors felt the complaint needed a thorough investigation," Zuma said.
Zuma said Mandela was expected to be discharged from the hospital Sunday or Monday.
The statements did not say at which hospital Mandela was being treated, apparently to protect his privacy, but that did not stop journalists from camping out at a military hospital in the capital, Pretoria, on the chance he might be there. In 2011, Mandela spent a few days in a private Johannesburg hospital with an acute respiratory infection.
CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES FROM MANDELA'S LIFE
The South African military, which took charge of Mandela's health care after he was hospitalized last year, and a spokesman for Mandela's office said they would have no statement Saturday.
ANC spokesman Keith Khoza said Zuma's office also had reassured ANC officials.
Mandela "just had abdominal pains for some time now and the doctors decided a while ago that perhaps they should admit him, with a view to check those abdominal pains, so it wasn't an emergency admission," Khoza told reporters. "He's fine, he's in good health."
Well-wishers like Derek Kemper, a 47-year-old emergency services consultant, said they hoped Mandela would soon recover.
Kemper said he fought the ANC as a soldier for the apartheid state. On Saturday, Kemper was touring Soweto, the famed Johannesburg township set aside for blacks under apartheid and still largely black and poor, with a group of other whites. Kemper marveled at how far the country had come, and credited Mandela.
"He had the wisdom to try to reunite the country." Kemper said, speaking in front of a Soweto home where Mandela once lived that has been turned into a museum celebrating Mandela's life.
Kemper said he believed that even though Mandela has largely retired from public life, he has a moderating influence on younger black South Africans who may be impatient with the pace of change in a country where the black majority remains poor. Kemper said he worried about whether the commitment to reconciliation would outlive Mandela.
But Kefiloe Molepo, a 19-year-old student who grew up just around the corner from Mandela's home, said there was little cause for concern. Molepo, walking home from church, said he was raised on stories about Mandela, who he said was a friend of his great-grandfather.
"When he was set free, he didn't think of vengeance," Molepo said. "He wanted peace for the nation."
In 1993, after white extremists killed Chris Hani, a black leader who at the time was second only to Mandela in popularity, Mandela went on national television to call for calm. Mandela wrote later that he was among those who feared Hani's death would spark a race war, and his measured words were credited with averting further violence.
Today, white extremists have been largely sidelined. And black militants like Julius Malema, head of the ANC's youth wing, grab headlines but struggle to draw crowds.
Christian Bohm, a 32-year-old Swedish telecommunications company employee who was visiting the Mandela museum Saturday, said Mandela had set an example for the world for how leaders can pursue justice.
"South Africa is very privileged to have had such a leader," said Bohm, comparing Mandela to India's Mahatma Gandhi.
Hassan Burma was visiting Soweto from South Sudan, Africa's newest nation.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan last year, and its leaders must now cope with the devastation of decades of civil war. Burma said Mandela has shown Africa has different possibilities.
"What he did wasn't just for South Africa," Burma said. "It is for all the African nations."
Mandela's public appearances have become increasingly rare, though he did appear at the closing ceremony of the World Cup in July 2010. Mandela also held a private meeting with Michelle Obama when the U.S. first lady traveled to South Africa with her daughters last year.
Mandela has taken up permanent residence at his home in Qunu, in the southwestern region of South Africa where he was raised. Earlier this year, Mandela came to his Johannesburg home for what Zuma's office said would be a brief stay while maintenance was done at his Qunu home. Zuma's office said then that Mandela was in good health.
Mandela's last surviving sibling, a sister, died last month near Qunu. Makhulu Nothusile Bhulehluthi was 82. Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, their father, had several wives and 31 children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Gotta love Nelson! He lived well! Wish him good health or if it's time, a peaceful and graceful exit!
Hey, it isn't easy to take a 1st world country down to 3rd world country status.
Gosh, how long would this great man have lived if he hadn't spent 27 years in prison?
Not this long. In prison, you get 3 hots, a cot, and free health care. They live better than us!
Nelson Mandela a good man. I hope he pulls through this and is okay. :)
Morgan Freeman is a great actor, hope he gets better.
Hell, I thought he died years ago.
The man belongs to a communist party (ANC). No doubt liberals would look up to him.
And remember that Liberals nearly destroyed this country from 2008 to 2010
Mandela's time in prison was related to his involvement with the ANC's campaign of terror across South Africa. Apparently, evidence linking him and his followers to efforts to destroy several government buildings was uncovered just in time to prevent the violence, and he was arrested, tried, and sent to prison. What role his activities played in promoting and securing the end of apartheid in South Africa is unclear and highly mythical.
Mandela's favorite method of torturing and killing his critics and political opponents was and is known as "necklacing." The victim is bound hand and foot, immobilized with a tire pressed around his/her torso, doused in gasoline, and set ablaze to die an excruciatingly painful death.
This man is no hero, certainly not on the level of Mahatma Ghandi in any way.
And u say he necklaced them while in prison. Because thats where he was for 27 years.
What does fact have to do with anything in a liberals mind.
Google "mandela singing about killing whites"
Oh boy. If he is ill, we will spend a week all over TV telling us how great he is.
The herp derp is strong on here this evening.
It's about time this corrupt war criminal finally died.
The myth of Mandela is one of the greatest PR hoaxes in world history. The man (and his wife Winnie especially) were brutal, murderous savages, and the people he led were nothing more than animals.
Maybe in a few decades after he dies the real truth can come out about who this monster really was.
It might be all true what you say but he didn't do what most African dictator do and rape the country and become emperor for life. He could have also kicked out all the whites but was smart enough to realize without the white population the country would be in the toilet within a year
Basically, who cares. He is a 93 year old man, well past when the actuarial tables say he should have died. Not to mention that he was (probably still is) an avowed communist and incited, if not directed, many terrorist acts. And if apartheid was so bad, why is the US, and many other western nations, supporting it in the occupied parts of Palestine? Politicians, all of them are two-faced pieces of trash.
Why is everyone giving so much credit to Ghandi? He was racist against blacks and anyone else who wasn't Indian, and he "relieved" women of constipation by doing doggy-style on their @ss. yea what a great man he was. Eveyrone is talking about how Nelson Mandela killed white people; how many people and how many genocides were done at the white mans hand? get over yourself.
Why is everyone praising Ghandi like he didn't do any dirt? He was racist against people who weren't Indian, and he convinced women to let him put in their rear to relieve their constipation. I'm not saying Mandela was a saint, but to put him down because he blew up aparteid buildings is stupid and killed aparteid supporters. Wake up and look at what's going on in the world. People are killing other people for other things too. And Mandela pushed for freedom in South Africa, what have you done with your lives, but sit at your computer and bash another great man. We're all human, goodness get over yourselves.
People seem to forget that killing innocent, unarmed women and children, bombing, burning and other terrorism intended to overthrow your country’s government is why Mandela was sent to prison. Very few governments are tolerant enough to permit terrorist to murder and plot to overthrow the government without imposing some kind of punishment. Timothy McVeigh fought against his government and he was punished, American style. Mandela was lucky that South Africa was far more tolerant than America.