South Africa president pleased Mandela is home

Former leader still in critical condition, reportedly on life support

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - South Africa's president said Tuesday that he was pleased Nelson Mandela had gone home from a hospital, saying it indicated the progress that the anti-apartheid leader had made even though he remains in critical condition.

An ambulance returned 95-year-old Mandela to his Johannesburg house on Sunday, and the office of President Jacob Zuma said he will receive the same level of care there that he did in the hospital, administered by the same doctors.

"He remains critical but stable, responding to treatment," Zuma said in a meeting with journalists in Pretoria, the South African capital. "I think we feel very good that he reached a point where the doctors who were treating him felt he could now leave the hospital to his home, which indicates the progress he had made."

Zuma also said: "We acknowledge that he is old and that he's not well but we are very happy that he's gone home, that he's still with us."

Mandela was admitted to the hospital on June 8 for what the government described as a recurring lung infection. Legal papers filed by his family said he was on life support.

On Tuesday, the former surgeon general of South Africa's military, Vejay Ramlakan, visited Mandela's home, the South African Press Association reported. Ramlakan was often seen arriving at the hospital in Pretoria during Mandela's stay there.