South African President Jacob Zuma said Thursday that the condition of ailing anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela had improved overnight, but he remains critical but stable. "He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night. The medical team continues to do a sterling job," Zuma said in a statement.
"I can reiterate that Tata (father) is very critical, that anything is imminent. But I want to emphasise again that it is only God who knows when the time to go is," Mandela's daughter Makaziwe Mandela had said.
Mr Mandela has often been unwell before. He is 94. His lungs were damaged in those long years of working in cold windy quarries on Robben Island. Tough days, followed by miserable nights in a cell where he couldn't even swing his arms from one side to the other. There have been stays in hospitals, and Mandela hasn't really been seen in public since the soccer world cup in 2010.
But as Alice, and millions of others like her, go about their work this morning, they know and fear that this time it could be different. There is frightening talk about life support systems and family visits to ancestral graveyards. The president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has cancelled his visit to Mozambique. A shadow hangs over the visit of Barack Obama to South Africa tomorrow -- an event that would have otherwise been the biggest news of the year.
Alice is 38. She was just a small girl during the apartheid era, when she was treated as a third class citizen, barred from even visiting large parts of her own country. Mandela has always loomed large in her life. "He gave us our freedom. What more can I say? I hope he gets well."
Kenneth Viljoen, 44, was born in Zimbabwe but moved to South Africa in the 1980s. As a white Afrikaaner, in the days of apartheid he would have represented the other side of the divide from Alice. But he sounds as concerned as she does. "It is very sad at the moment. All of us are holding our breath."
Ken has seen the trauma that countries like Zimbabwe have seen, where the white community has been deliberately targeted and victimized. Mandela's policies had ensured that South Africa would not go down that path of retribution.
Ken says, "He made a big transition in the country. We are a bit worried because he was such a role model. It is inevitable that he will pass away but what now? What made him such a hero for the white community was that while the apartheid government separated people, he brought people together regardless of the colour of their skin. We couldn't have expected a better transition. Something like Zimbabwe could have happened, but it didn't. And it is because he is such a good human being."
Ken feels there is an element of concern that things could deteriorate, but he remains optimistic that Mandela's values are now too well engrained to be discarded.
Millions of South African are hoping for the best - but they realize that this is a hope which is dimming by the hour.
( with inputs from AFP)