File: South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu (R) and staff from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy hold up a poster wishing Nelson Mandela a happy birthday at the Marconi Beam Public Primary School in Cape Town on 18 July 2013. Nelson Mandela spent his 95th birthday in hospital Thursday but his health was “steadily improving”, the South African presidency said, as people around the world honoured his legacy with charitable acts. With a wave of good deeds planned to mark Nelson Mandela Day, South Africans awoke to word that their national hero was getting better six fraught weeks after he was admitted to hospital with a recurring lung infection. AFP PHOTO
South Africa’s retired archbishop Desmond Tutu was on Wednesday hospitalised for a nagging infection, one of his daughters said.
The 84-year-old Nobel Peace laureate “admitted himself to a Cape Town hospital today for treatment to a recurring infection,” said Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe in a statement.
“He is expected to remain in hospital for a week or two,” she added.
File: South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu (R) AFP PHOTO
The much-loved anti-apartheid activist “underwent similar treatment last year,” Tutu-Gxashe said.
Tutu was hospitalised three times in 2015 over a persistent infection that his foundation — the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation — said was a result of the prostate cancer treatment he has been receiving for nearly 20 years.
The last time he was admitted to hospital was in August last year, a stay that lasted just over two weeks.
His other daughter, Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu-van Furth, on Tuesday delivered a speech on his behalf at a human rights conference in Johannesburg, mentioning that he was not feeling very well.
Tutu, who is the former archbishop of Cape Town, this year celebrated the 40th anniversary of his priesthood.
He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, gaining worldwide prominence for his strong opposition to South Africa’s apartheid regime.
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