Mandela responding well to treatment for lung infection

But amid sketchy details of his condition, many South Africans have resigned themselves to the idea that the nation's first black president will not be around for ever.

Mandela's grand-daughter Ndileka told local television that the man affectionately known by South Africans as Madiba has taken to accept his condition.

"I think he takes it in his strides, he has come to accept that it's part of growing old, and it's part of humanity as such. At some point you will dependent on someone else, he has come to embrace it," she said.

Over a decade after he left office the tall grey-haired Nobel peace laureate retains a prominent place in the national psyche, and his health has become a subject of global obsession as he ages.

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