Critically ill: Nelson Mandela (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Nelson Mandela’s family have been advised by doctors to turn off the anti-apartheid leader’s life support machine, new court documents show.

The critically ill 94-year-old has been described as being in a ‘permanent vegetative state’, according to the documents dated June 26.

‘He is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine,’ the papers say.

‘The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off.


‘Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability.’

Grave dispute: Mandla Mandela, grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela (Picture: EPA)

The papers were obtained by Mandela family members involved in a bitter court battle with the former president’s grandson over the graves of the former leader’s three children.



Yesterday, Mandla Mandela lost a court battle brought by 16 of his relatives after he moved the remains from the village where his grandfather was raised to the one where he was born.

Earlier, the government said South Africa’s first black president was in a ‘critical but stable’ condition after nearly four weeks in hospital recovering from a recurring lung infection.

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President Jacob Zuma added: ‘He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night. The medical team continues to do a sterling job.’

Mr Mandela has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27 years as a prisoner overall under white racist rule until his release in 1990.