Nelson Mandela taken to hospital Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for President Jacob Zuma, said: "Former president Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital today, the 25th February 2012." The health of the increasingly frail anti-apartheid icon, who is affectionately known as Madiba, sparked national fears after he was taken to hospital early last year for an acute respiratory infection. The hospital he has been admitted to was not specified, although it is likely to be in Johannesburg, where Mr Mandela returned to live last month while his home in Qunu, in the rural Eastern Cape, is rennovated. We request that all respect the privacy of Madiba and that of his family during this period. A source in the extended Mandela family told The Telegraph they had not heard he was in hospital. "I was aware that there were some issues with his stomach but I don't think it's anything too serious," the source said. Mr Mandela last appeared in public at the final of the football World Cup hosted by South Africa in July 2010. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, a year before he was elected the country's first black president in South Africa's first all-race vote and served one term before stepping down in 1999.