Though frail and elderly, Mandela continues to inspire a nation
Frail and elderly, anti-apartheid hero provides a moral voice in a nation betrayed by corruption
"Born Free" South Africans have joined the groundswell of concern about Nelson Mandela's hospitalisation, moulding the icon's legacy to their life two decades after white rule.
After three days of silence on the illness of the national icon, President Jacob Zuma's office issued a three-line statement on Tuesday announcing that the anti-apartheid hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner was suffering from a lung infection.
Mandela's hospitalisation on Saturday for medical tests caused national alarm.
But the universal affection for Mandela belies the fact that at least one in three South Africans never lived under apartheid and many more, like 21-year-old student Mahlako Mahlangu, have little recollection of it. But for the generation of South Africans born in the 1990s Mandela is still an icon. His achievements mean a life without passbooks and racial persecution.
"I think Mandela did make a difference, even though there are some problems here and there, but there's a huge, huge difference because of him," she said.
But as the struggle against apartheid becomes ever more of an abstraction for those who never lived through it, Mandela has taken up a new mantle.