Here in South Africa we are possibly on the brink of losing our nation’s father. Nelson Mandela was admitted into the MediClinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria on the 8^th of June, following recurrent lung infection. Still admitted, Mandela’s condition does not seem to be improving.

Many fondly call Mandela ‘Tata’ (father).

It is difficult for supporters- nationally and internationally- to remain optimistic about recovery for the already 94 year old former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Nonetheless however, support for Mandela and his family have been flooding in from all over the world. Outside the hospital in Pretoria (at the very heart of South Africa), well-wishers have created a great tribute of photos, flowers, prayers and letters of support. These are the manifest hopes of a nation that does not want to lose their ‘Tata’, their Nelson Mandela.

“We thank the public for the dignified gatherings outside the hospital,” the current South African president Jacob Zuma said in a recent statement. “Many groupings and individuals have gathered in dignity, respecting the privacy of Madiba [Nelson Mandela], other patients, their families, or the hospital personnel”.

Countless South Africans have come to pray for Mandela’s recovery outside the hospital in Pretoria.

Nelson Mandela was already 75 years old when he became the first democratically elected South African president in 1994. In the last couple of years Mandela has been in and out of hospital, each time causing a whole nation to worryingly hold its breath. Already more than four weeks since initial admittance to the hospital, the only thing that the current presidency was able to offer worried hearts was that Mandela was “still critical, but stable”.

In unified support a once divided nation is again brought together by Nelson Mandela. This is his legacy. Regardless of ethnicity, South Africans share the mutual heartache of seeing their nation’s father fighting once again, though this time it is a struggle of a different kind.