Pretoria – The area outside the Pretoria hospital where former president Nelson Mandela is spending his 48th day was quiet on Friday morning.

Residents in the surrounding area went about their daily business. Broadcast equipment stood idle on the pavement outside the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital’s Celliers Street entrance, with foreign journalists absent. A few cameras were trained on the Park Street entrance.

A woman had set up a stall selling T-shirts with Mandela’s face on them, while the hospital wall behind her, from the street corner to the end of the hospital premises, was covered with banners, pictures, and messages of support for Mandela.

Metro police were at both ends of Celliers Street, keeping watch, while police checked cars entering and leaving the hospital’s two entrances.

Mandela was admitted to hospital on 8 June with a recurring lung infection. According to the last update on his health from the presidency Mandela’s condition had improved, though he was still in a critical condition.

– SAPA