Mandela: His Spirit And Sparkle Is Fading – Wife

by Topsy Oba

Madiba & Wife, Graca Machel: Says The Former S/African Leader Has Lost His 'Sparkle'

Wife of Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel has said the former S/African leader has lost his ‘sparkle’

as South African military doctors continue Nelson Mandela’s treatment for a recurring lung infection – an ailment the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader remains susceptible to because of his age and his 27 years incarceration ordeal, his wife, Graca Machel, has revealed that she is losing hope as the icon battles the infection.

She gave the indication while speaking to a local television station. Machel said it was painful to see her husband “ageing”. “I mean, this spirit and this sparkle, you see that somehow it’s fading,” she told ENews Central Africa. “To see him ageing, it’s something also which pains you … You understand and you know it has to happen.”

Mandela’s grand-daughter Ndileka told the same TV network that he had come to accept his condition. “I think he takes it in his stride, he has come to accept that it’s part of growing old, and it’s part of humanity as such,” she said. “At some point you will depend on someone else, he has come to embrace it.”