Nelson Mandela, battling a recurrent lung infection, spent a fourth day in intensive care and continued to be in a "serious but stable" condition today, even as doctors are doing their best to make the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon better.

 

"President Jacob Zuma met with the medical team that is treating Nelson Mandela, and they gave him a thorough briefing. The former president is still in a serious, but stable condition in a Pretoria hospital," Indian media said quoting foreign wires. "Zuma has full confidence in the medical team, and is satisfied that they are doing their best to make Madiba (Mandela's clan name) better," it said.

 

"He is receiving intensive care treatment," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj was quoted by media reports as saying. Mandela was shifted to Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria in the early hours on Saturday, the fourth time since December he has been admitted.

 

The President's office had said on Saturday that Mandela was in a "serious but stable condition." He was breathing on his own and his wife was by his side.  Security was beefed up at the hospital with police today setting up gates and fences around entrances to the facility, closely checking vehicles trying to access the compound. In April, doctors diagnosed Mandela with pneumonia and drained fluid from his chest.