BBC News - Mandela's health: Zuma sings in praise of-ex-president 26 June 2013 Last updated at 18:01 South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has been singing in praise of Nelson Mandela South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has sung a rousing anti-apartheid song for Nelson Mandela, 94, who is critically ill in hospital. Mr Zuma said Mr Mandela's 95th birthday on 18 July would be celebrated with "vigour as it is a life spent in dedication to humanity." Mr Mandela, South Africa's first black president, was admitted to hospital on 8 June with a recurring lung infection. On a visit to the hospital on Tuesday, a cleric prayed for his "peaceful end." Also visiting on Tuesday was Mr Mandela's daughter Zindzi, who said her father had "opened his eyes and smiled." Gratitude Mr Mandela's condition became critical on Sunday. He is being treated at a private hospital in the capital, Pretoria. On Wednesday, Mr Zuma told delegates at a conference of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) that he remained in a critical condition and "we must keep him and the family in our thoughts and prayers every minute." Mr Zuma opened the conference in the main city, Johannesburg, with a popular song about Mr Mandela, the South African Press Association (Sapa) reports. "We are walking a long distance, so said Nelson Mandela to his supporters," he sang in the local Zulu language, as the crowd ululated, Sapa reports. He left power in 1999 after five years as the country's first black president. On Tuesday, Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba prayed with Mr Mandela's wife Graca Machel at the hospital. Grant him, we pray, a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect end. Zindzi, the youngest of Mr Mandela's three daughters, told the US broadcaster ABC News in a phone conversation on Tuesday night that she had held her father's hand whilst talking to him about recent events, including the news that US President Barack Obama was due to visit South Africa at the end of the week. During the conversation he opened his eyes and smiled, she said. Ms Mandela felt like she was walking on air, and walked out of the hospital with a "huge sense of hope," she added. However, other family members want the burial to take place in Qunu. They also want the bodies of three of Mr Mandela's children, including his son, Makgatho, who died of an Aids-related illness in 2005, to be exhumed from Mvezo and moved back to Qunu, the paper reports.